A Story Lost in Time
by ValerieAnn
Summary: "Hermione, what are you doing?" "Saving your life," It's 6th year and Hermione falls for the boy who has made all the wrong choices. DM/HG, First fic, rated M for later chapters. HBP era, goes into DH.
1. The 6th floor corridor

Hello my lovelies. This is my first fic, because although I am a long time potterhead, I am new to the Dramione fandom! Future chapters will be longer and think of this chapter as more of a prologue. I already have 4 chapters written, so expect updates soon! I won't post them all right now, cause I want to make sure the second matches up with the fifth and so on.

I would love reviews, but please, constructive criticism only. If you don't like my story, tell me why. If you do, tell me why. Sorry this is a slow chapter. Chapter 2 to be posted on Friday, and 3 on Sunday morning. Enjoy your reading :)

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><p>It was nearing the end of Hermione's sixth year at Hogwarts. It was quite chilly and grey for the beginning of April, and it seemed as if even the weather was showing that wicked things were coming this way. As she patrolled the corridors alone on her prefect shift, all she could think about was where her future was headed. If she even had a future, that is. With the Dark Lord rising into power, there was no guarantee that she would even be alive this time next year. She also realized how alone she had felt this year. She hardly saw much of Ron and Harry anymore. In fact, Ron should be patrolling with her right now, but she left early from the common room, assuming that he would probably just be off snogging Lavender somewhere. With Harry, no one really knew what was going on. He always made sure to tell her everything that Dumbledore said to him, but between his meetings with the Headmaster, his persistence on following Draco Malfoy, his distrust of Snape, his Quidditch captain duties and his avoidance of Slughorn, it seemed like he hardly had time for Hermione anymore. She had Ginny she could turn to, but she was either always with Dean, or complaining about him so it seemed as though she never wanted to actually know how Hermione was, or how she was feeling about everything.<p>

As she walked farther down the 6th floor corridor, she started to feel a familiar buzzing in her ear. It almost as though there was a fly within a few feet of her. Hermione immediately recognized this feeling and was confused. Exactly how many students knew the _Muffliato_ spell? As far as she knew, it was only she, Ron and Harry. Harry was sitting in the 7th floor corridor, beside the Room of Requirement, with his invisibility cloak on so there was no way he could have cast it, and she was pretty sure Ron was with Lavender in the Gryffindor common room. Not many people would recognize when this spell had been cast, but being typical Hermione, she often noticed the small details of the affects of spells that most wizards and witches in general would overlook.

Hermione looked around and realized that she was right next to the bathroom on the sixth floor. It wasn't often that she would find students in this corridor since it seemed more like a useless space between the 5th and 7th floors. She leaned against the bathroom door and didn't hear a single noise, just the light buzzing. She tried to slowly turn the knob only to notice someone had used a locking charm in the bathroom as well. She quickly undid both spells, hopefully without notifying the person or people inside, and leaned her head against the door again. She was hoping to possibly catch some lower years in the middle of a snog, but instead all she heard was sobbing. It seemed as if the person, or most likely boy, who was inside was trying to control the sobs but couldn't, so they came out in a sputtering and choking manner.

"Let me help you. Please." Said a very girly and high-pitched voice.

"No, you can't help me. No one can help me!" exclaimed the sobbing boy.

"I can do my best, at least let me try."

"He is going to kill me if I can't do this. He'll also go after my family, I have no choice."

"Oh sweetheart, you always have a choice."

Hermione finally recognized the girl's voice as that of Moaning Myrtle. It seemed strange that she wasn't in her bathroom on the second floor or spying on the prefect's in their bathroom on the fifth floor but that isn't what concerned Hermione the most. The boy's voice was unrecognizable through his sobs. This must be the boy that Harry had heard about from Moaning Myrtle just the week before. She pressed her ear closer to the bottom of the door, hoping to figure out who it was.

"I can do this, I have to. My own life is at stake here." The boy's voice was no longer shaky, and Hermione immediately knew that, that voice belonged to none other than Draco Malfoy.

She didn't know what she was thinking, but she pushed her body away from the door and up from the floor. With a quick swipe of the front of her robes, and a quick run through her slightly bushy hair with her fingers, she set her hand on the doorknob. Hermione debated with herself on whether or not to turn the knob for a moment when she heard footsteps coming down the hall. Instead of asserting herself as a prefect, without thinking she slipped into the bathroom, turned towards the door and shut it. She seemed to always resort to hiding when she was in the halls after hours, often forgetting that she had the right to be in the halls with her superiority as prefect. Before she could walk back out the door to reprimand whatever student was wondering the halls this late at night she heard a chilling voice behind her.

"What exactly are you doing, Granger?"

Hermione turned towards Malfoy and quickly retorted, "Excuse me, but I have a right to be here" pointing to her prefect's badge. "And may I ask what you're doing out of your dormitory at this hour?"

"In case you have forgotten, I am a prefect as well." Malfoy said while turning away from her, trying to hide his slightly red and puffy eyes.

"Well if you're supposed to be a prefect, at least have the decency to act like it. It's not like you've actually done any patrolling in this school since the Inquisitorial Squad disbanded, and that was only for your sick, personal thrill of power."

"Granger," Malfoy said turning back to her and stepping within a foot of her, "how about you do me a favor and do not act as though you know me. You don't know _anything_ about me."

"I beg to differ Malfoy. You see, you aren't exactly that hard to figure out. You vie for perfection and hate the fact that not all things will ever go your way." It was Hermione who took a small step forward now. "That is why you hate Harry, isn't it? He chose being Ron's friend over being yours, and let's be honest, do you honestly hate me because of what family I was born into, or the fact that even with your so-called superior blood status, I am still better than you in every single subject."

Malfoy backed Hermione up against the bathroom door and set is hands against the door on both sides of her. He stared daggers at her hoping she would lose her composure, but Hermione kept her lips in a straight line and stared straight back at him. "I honestly don't give a shit about what you think Granger, or about your little followers Potty and Weasel. Don't you understand why they stick around you? They are both too daft to actually think through their little plans and if it wasn't for you, I doubt they would be alive right now." His face was within inches of her now and he could smell the peppermint on Hermione's breath. He could tell he had touched a nerve as her eyes suddenly looked more wet than they did before, but she still kept her face, trying to hide her rage and hurt. "Don't you see it? They use you. I noticed you and the Weasel don't talk very often anymore. Are you upset because he chose Lavender over you?"

"Fuck off Malfoy, you have no right to insinuate anything happened between Ronald and I."

"Don't you see Granger? I guess we aren't so different after all." He said, releasing his hands on either side of her and taking a step back, smirking.

"How dare you even compare me to the likes of you. I am _nothing_ like you. You are a seething git who only cares about blood status and shagging every girl who has every stepped foot into the Slytherin common room. Don't you ever suggest that we are at all similar, do you understand?" At this point Hermione now had the tip of her wand against Draco's adams apple. Draco wasn't sure why, but he liked the fire that hid inside of her.

"Hermione, lower your wand."

"Do not think for one moment you can order me arou-, did you just call me Hermione?"

"Well that is your name, isn't it? Why did you come in here in the first place?"

"I-… I was simply doing my patrols and heard a noise in here." Hermione said so fast her words nearly blended together.

"Oh really? And how could you have possibly done that? We both know there was a silencing spell on the room. Stop playing games." Malfoy snapped

"I don't answer to you Draco."

"Did you just call me Draco?" Malfoy said, mocking Hermione's previous question.

Hermione almost mirrored his famous smirk, "Well that is your name? Isn't it?" and with that she quickly opened bathroom door and headed back to her common room. Draco paced in the bathroom for a little while, forgetting his earlier sorrow. Now all he could think about was Granger. He loosened his green tie and tried to sooth his unkempt hair down. Draco found himself blushing from embarrassment at possibility that Hermione could have possibly came in to check on him, or even spy on him, and heard him sobbing. He knew that this would not be his last confrontation with Hermione Granger.


	2. I never hated you

Well hello my darlings! I wasn't going to post this until I got home from work tonight at about one in the morning, but I like this chapter and have been done with it for a week so I figured 'why not!' I'm sorry this chapter is just as short as the first one, but the 3rd one is a lot longer, and I'm finishing the 4th one right now, and it's even longer than that!

I guess I should do one of these disclaimer things. I don't own any of this.

Really quickly, I wanted to explain what I'm trying to do here. I'm trying to stick to the plot and timeline of HBP as much as I possibly can. Obviously I can't be that canon since it's Dramione but other than that, I'm trying to change the story in my own way. If I make a quick reference and don't necessarily explain it, that is why. It's already explained in the book and don't want to have to rephrase everything that is going on in HBP.

**I also wanted to thank my reviewers on the last chapter. I was really upset last night over something and checked my computer and instantly cheered up! Okay, I swear I'm done with this now. Onto the story already! - _Valerie Ann_**

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><p>The next morning in the Great Hall, Hermione sat down to breakfast beside Ginny and Dean to her right, Parvati on her left and Harry across from her. She still didn't know exactly what happened last night. While lying in her bed after her confrontation with Draco, she realized not once did her call her mudblood, which was strange considering they had never gotten in an argument where he didn't call her that. Hermione was so busied with her thoughts, she almost didn't realize Ron had sat next to Harry, and Lavender was practically wrapped around him.<p>

"Won Won, are you sure you're alright? You've been acting so strange. Is that poison still in your system? You have been awfully moody as of late." Lavender whined while throwing her leg over Ron so she was straddling him. Ron gently moved her back so she was sitting to his right again with an annoyed look on his face.

"Lavender, it's been four weeks since I got out of the hospital wing. For the last time, I am perfectly fine. I –er- need to go finish my Potions essay. I'll see you later." And with that Ron got up and practically speed walked in the direction of the common room. Lavender frowned and folded her arms like a child throwing a tantrum. Her pigtails and large headband with a flower on it didn't help feign that vision in Hermione's head and she tried to stifle her laughter by eating and thinking about the Charms essay due next month.

"What is so funny, Hermione?" Lavender said without hiding the spite in her tone.

"Oh… nothing. Dean here just told a joke, now didn't you Dean?" She pleaded with him simply in her facial expression, hoping he would understand and go along.

"Err- Yes, I just did. What's it to you, Lavender?" Hermione nearly sighed out of relief that he caught on.

"Well then please, share the laughter Dean. I think we all would love to hear your little joke." Lavender replied.

"Dear Lavender, no offense but I don't believe you would understand. It isn't quite on your level." Dean said with a condescending smile.

At that, Lavender scoffed and rose from her seat, glaring at Dean, then ran out of the Great Hall and slammed the large doors behind her. As soon as she left Hermione couldn't help but laugh at the whole thing and thanked Dean. Before she could finish telling Ginny how she had a good man on her hands, she lifted her head and noticed a pair of grey eyes staring at her from across the room. The well kept platinum blonde hair and smirk were unmistakable. Draco Malfoy was staring at her. Hermione's smile lowered into a straight line and she quickly looked behind her to see if she could have possibly been inaccurate and he was staring and something behind her, but no. He was only looking at her. It didn't seem like the smirk he would usually give her, but it almost looked like a smile. For the first time she noticed that there were bags under his eyes as though he hadn't had a good night's sleep in weeks, and his collar wasn't tucked it like it normally was every day. He looked like the worn out remains of a boy who was forced to become a man much too early. She realized she was staring as well and quickly went back to focusing on her food and left the Great Hall as soon as she possibly could. As she was walking through the 5th floor corridor alone to go back to her dormitory, she hardly had time to scream as someone grabbed her arm and pulled her into the prefect's bathroom. Without even looking first, Hermione kicked her attacker in the shin and was prepared to run out the door when she heard a voice seething out of pain.

"Damn Granger, you sure have some strength in those legs."

"What the hell Malfoy! You can't just scare me like that! Unless that was your intent…." As she said that last statement she pulled out her wand. Draco smiled, grabbed his wand and threw it to the floor a couple meters away from him.

"No ill intentions here Granger, I just don't feel like we finished our discussion yesterday."

Hermione cautiously lowered her wand, still keeping it at ready on her side, just in case. "Discussion? You really believe that can even be considered a discussion?"

"We were talking. We kept it comparably calm considering our past so yes, I'd say that was a discussion." Draco stated, very composed. "Now, onto business. Why did you undo the spells to get into the upstairs bathroom yesterday?"

"I don't need to prove anything to you Malfoy but for your information, unlike most people I can tell when a Muffliato spell has been cast on a room." Hermione proudly stated.

"Oh, you can now? So -er- did you hear me in uhm, there?"

"I'm not going to save you your pride and act as though I didn't. I will tell you however that I didn't tell anyone, and I don't plan to. Just answer me this, why were you crying?"

Draco kept silent for a moment, then walked over to the edge of the large bathtub and sat down. He ran his fingers through his hair and looked back up at Hermione, who he hadn't noticed had come and sat next to him, their thighs within inches of each other's.

"First off, I was _not _crying." Malfoy stated with a stern tone, "and even if I was, which I wasn't, you would never understand."

Hermione handed him his wand, which she had apparently picked up on her way over to the tub and looked straight into his eyes. "What makes you say that?"

"Well it isn't like we've been on the friendliest terms Herm-Granger. I don't think I can trust you."

"Before we cover your reasoning for that, I want to know why you're being civil with me."

"Do I need a specific reason to have a normal conversation with you?" Draco said, feigning hurt at first but then turning up the corners of his mouth into a smirk.

Hermione smiled back, "I guess you don't but we're going on six years of pure hatred now. That can't exactly change over the course of two days."

"I never said I hated you." Draco said, staring straight into Hermione's eyes and looking serious.

"You called me mudblood and any other possible name any chance you were given to the point where words no longer hurt me. You've questioned my intelligence and demeaned my friends. I've punched you in the nose, cursed you when you weren't looking and bad mouthed you in every possible way. How does that not equal absolute dislike to you?" she said while glaring at Draco.

"Listen Hermione," he said while wading his hand across the water behind him in the tub. "I can't exactly apologize to you because I know it'll probably mean nothing now. I've done so much and hurt so many only to save myself. That is what I did back then, to save myself from my father's idea of a perfect son, and that is what I'm doing now it ways you'll never understand, but I am sorry. It isn't about blood status for me. It never was."

Hermione couldn't help but gape at Draco after what he had just said. Before she could even comprehend what just happened, she was pushed backwards off the edge of the tub into the large pool of water behind her. As she sputtered water out of her mouth, she managed to choke out "Draco Malfoy, I will not hesitate to use an Unforgivable Curse against you for this!" By the end of her short rant, Hermione could no longer contain her laughter or keep her self-control.

She continued laughing and heard a quick splash. She tried to quickly wipe the water from her eyes so she could see what the splash was. By the time she managed to open her eyes, Draco's grey eyes were mere inches from here light brown ones. He was also soaking wet, and she could only imagine how ridiculous it must have looked. Two prefects completely donned in their school robes, in the large prefect's bathroom tub. She started to giggle again at the thought of it, as did Draco realizing what he had just started. Suddenly she felt a hand slide behind her neck and pull her forward.

Draco softly placed his lips on Hermione's. She was so shocked she didn't react and he pulled back, letting his arm slide back to his side, seeming to realize what had just happened. Before he could say the apology he meant to say, Hermione wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his lips back to hers. This time, the kisses were not soft, but fierce. It was as if they were releasing years of anger at each other in one passionate moment. Draco's arms slid around her waist and her legs were soon wrapped around his, while he was sitting cross legged in the tub. Her arm slid so her hands lay on his shoulders and his hands began to slide down her back.

His tongue slid across her lip and she welcomed it inside her mouth. There was no fight for dominance as they seemed to merely blend together, keeping their tongues in perfect rhythm. Draco could taste the peppermint that he had smelled on Hermione's breath the day before and couldn't get enough of it. Soon they started to hear what sounded like a herd running down the halls. Hermione pulled away first.

"Oh no!" She exclaimed.

"What is it Hermione?" Draco looked around worried.

"I've been in here for my entire free period. It's time to go to Potions!" She said as she climbed off his lap and out of the tub. She was already headed for the door handle when Draco caught up to her and held her back.

"Do you not realize it'd look a little strange if you went to class in soaking wet robes?"

"I haven't missed Potions all year, and I'm not missing it now." Hermione retorted.

With his hands still on her arms, Draco quickly caressed her lips with his own and released her. "Then go on, but don't expect me to show up to class looking like this." He said with a smirk on his face.

"Oh you are so vain!" Hermione said as she walked on the door.


	3. Where have you been?

**SURPRISE**! :) I wasn't planning on posting this chapter for a few days, but the reviews were so lovely I couldn't help myself! You probably won't get chapter 4 until Sunday night/Monday morning though. I am trying to type ahead of myself so that when finals week comes up, I can regularly update without taking up all my study time. I want to keep up the regular updates cause nothing pisses me off more than when I am all into a fic and the author takes weeks to post, or even a week to post. I don't want to be like that.

Also, not that it matters, but the other reason I posted early is cause I should be in a bad mood considering I just worked a 9 hour shift on black Friday and my feet hurt, but I have a date tomorrow! Eeep! I am so excited!

**Thank you so much for the reviews! They make me giddier than a little girl on Christmas morning. If any of you have a story you'd like me to check out, either post the name in the reviews or PM me. I would love to read all your stories and review them. I'm going to finish chapter 5 now! - Valerie Ann**

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><p>On the way to class, Hermione used as many warming spells as she could to try and dry out her clothes and hair. Often along the long walk to the dungeons she would catch someone staring at her. With one quick glare they would rapidly run down the nearest corridor.<p>

By the time she arrived to the potions room in the dungeon, Hermione had managed to dry her clothes off completely and not only dry her hair, but use a calming spell to rid of any frizziness that reminded her of herself in first year. As far as she was concerned, she arrived to class a minute early and looking quite decent. She took her usual seat next to Harry, with Ron in front of them. Lavender was nowhere to be seen. Looking across the room, she noticed the empty seat where the pratty, blonde haired Slytherin usually sat, and hoped that he would somehow find a way to make it to class.

Class went on and ten minutes in Hermione realized there was no way Draco was coming. She wasn't even quite sure why she wanted him there. Soon the class was starting on the Awakening Potion, which if good quality, would be donated to the Hospital Wing. Hermione had brewed this potion before and knew it word for word by heart but couldn't even focus on the directions if she tried.

"Okay, wolfsbane… wolfsbane… damnit!" she muttered under her breath.

"Hermione, are you okay?" She looked up and Harry was across the table from her with a worried look on his face. She managed to look over at his cauldron and noticed his potion was the perfect color and consistency that the book stated it should be at right now. Hermione's potion almost looked as bad as Ron's did. "Earth to Hermione!" Harry said while waving his hand in front of her face.

"I am bloody perfect Harry. No need for the obnoxious gestures." She wasn't quite sure if her tone came out of spite for that damn potions book that has been getting him perfect marks all year, of if she was still frustrated by her recent incident in the bathroom with Malfoy. As soon as class was over, Hermione got up from her seat and walked out of class without a word to Harry, hoping this would give him a chance to talk to Slughorn about some memory he needed to get from him.

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><p>It had been two weeks since Draco had kissed Hermione in the Prefect's bathroom. Or did she kiss him? She was so confused. Every day at each meal she would stare across the room at the Slytherin table hoping to see a flash of blonde hair, or a smirk that seemed to be meant for her, but she never came across either. Some days she would even skip going down to the Great Hall and just ask Ginny to bring her something back. She didn't want to go down to the first floor only to be disappointed again. After 14 days, she could no longer stay in this funk. Maybe that was why Malfoy kissed her? To simply mess with her head. It all made sense now. Had Draco caught on to the fact that Harry was following him, and figured Hermione could buy him some time? She was not a woman to be used and thrown away.<p>

Hermione marched down to the Great Hall for dinner. As soon as she walked through the large doors, she saw the flash of blond hair. She glared in his direction then walked over to her usual spot at the Gryffindor table. It was a lot easier to stay for meals now that Ron and Lavender had broken up and she and Parvati had taken to sitting at the far end of the table throwing occasional glares in Ron's direction. There was still tension at the table though considering all Dean and Ginny had done as of late is fight, yet for some reason they still sat next to each other, angrily silent and causing a gloomy cloud to form over their end of the table. Harry looked oddly happy though every time he looked over at the clashing couple. As he was still smiling, Harry leaned over the table closer to Hermione, and whispered his plans for tonight. He was going to take some of his Felix Felicis he had won in Slughorn's class earlier in the year, and hope to get that un-tampered memory out of him.

Hermione couldn't focus on what he was saying, and cut him off. "Harry, since you'll have the Felix tonight, do you think I could possibly borrow the Marauder's Map?"

"Er, sure Hermione. May I ask what for first?"

"I just figured since you won't be able to keep an eye on the castle like you do every night…" Harry looked at her curiously, "Oh come on, we all know you fall asleep with that map in your hand after staring at it for hours on end. I just thought you'd be busy tonight so I can be the watch."

"Okay. Watch for Malfoy though, if he isn't show up on the map that means he is in the Room of Requirement. As far as I know, that is the only room that isn't marked on the map and he has seemingly disappeared a lot over these past few months, even more so over the last few weeks. I don't know what is going on, but after I get done with this job for Dumbledore, I am going to figure it out." Harry said with a serious tone, and he was one to keep his word when he made that kind of statement.

"Well you have bigger things to worry about tonight Harry. Go on! It's nearly six and you should probably grab what you need from your dorm before it gets crowded," stated Hermione. She wasn't sure if her tone would possibly give her away. She hated lying to Harry, as it was a rarity for her.

After dinner instead of sticking around and talking to Ron like she was originally planning, she ran upstairs acting as though she was heading to the Common Room, but instead veered off when she hit the 7th floor and wandered down the corridor. She had the Marauder's Map in her robe pocket and was getting ready to pull it out when she noticed a first year Slytherin girl standing to the side of the wall that let into the Room of Requirement. The girl looked bored, and was holding a pair of scales. Before the girl noticed her, Hermione case an _Avis_ charm, then combined it with _Oppugno_, so the birds she had created out of thin air chased after the little girl, pecking at her as she ran away with a manly scream. She dropped her scales on the way and just before they hit the ground, Hermione cast a hover charm, then _Accio_ed them in her direction. They floated right up to her hand and she gently set them down and waited.

After waiting for an hour, Hermione was getting bored. "_Homenum Revelio_," Hermione whispered and quickly realized that there was indeed someone in the hidden room before her. Doing a quick check of her surroundings, she sat in the corner a few feet from the entry to the room, cast a disillusionment charm and brought out the Marauder's Map.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

And with those simple words the map revealed the placement of everyone in Hogwarts. Harry was in Hagrid's hut with Slughorn and Hagrid, Ron was pacing in his dorm and Ginny and Dean were sitting on opposite sides of the common room. Hermione searched the entire map but couldn't find Draco anywhere. She tied her messy hair back into a loose ponytail and removed her school robes to reveal that she was just wearing jeans and a white singlet with a light blue jacket over it. She always figured if no one would see her clothes, she might as well dress comfortably. She used her robe as a cushion to sit on the cold, stone floor and resumed waiting. Within minutes of sitting she heard a creaking noise, and looked up to see that a door was forming on the previously rock hard wall. After it had completely formed, and tall, pale figure peeked out the door, then stepped out and closed it behind him. He had a stressed look on his face and the bags under his eyes had become even darker since Hermione had last seen him.

"_Expelliarmus_!" Hermione shouted quickly. If she was going to pop out of nowhere, she didn't want him to have his wand at hand. That could end badly, especially with the mood he seemed to be in.

Draco turned around to see who had disarmed him. "What the fuck are you doing Granger? Give me back my wand!" he demanded

"First, you tell me what the bloody hell you were doing in there, Malfoy!" Hermione scoffed back at him.

"I thought the unwritten rule was that we don't answer to each other." He said coldly.

"If you want your wand back, and not broken beyond repair, then I recommend you start talking. Where have you been these last two weeks? I am not one of your tarts who you can just kiss and then forget about. Why did you even kiss me? Am I just a part of your ploy, or whatever it is that you're doing?" Hermione tried to keep the tears out of her eyes. He wouldn't win. If that was his plan, he would have to save it because Hermione Jean Granger is stronger than that.

"Hermione… I-"

"Oh so we're back to a first name basis now!" Hermione cut off Draco, before he could explain.

"Will you stop being such a stubborn prat and just listen to me! You were never supposed to be involved in this. Don't you get it? This is way bigger than you and me. I don't regret kissing you but the fact is, I shouldn't have done it. Especially if I knew you'd be following me around at this hour. I kissed you because I wanted to. Not as part of any plan or whatever it is you are suggesting that I am doing, but I assure you, it was never about you." Draco looked almost sad as he finished.

"Then what is it about Draco?" She asked softly, while walking towards him and holding out his wand, "I may have been wrong about a lot of things, but it's kind of hard when it seems as though you've been deliberately avoiding me. What did you expect me to think? Also, don't act as though I am daft, just tell me the truth. Please?"

"Hermione, I'm saving you by not telling you the truth. I never meant to avoid you, I've been very busy and I'm sure you were confused after our last encounter, because I am too. But, I want you to know you're practically all I've thought about in the last two weeks, and it's selfish of me. I have too much going on right now and the last thing I need is to involve you." He grabbed his wand out of Hermione's hand and turned to walk down the hall when she grabbed his hand.

"So that meant nothing to you, is that it?" She couldn't stop the tear falling down her face. She wasn't even sure why she was crying. It wasn't usual for Hermione to feel like this. It took her years to have feelings for Ron but one kiss from Draco and all those feelings drifted in the opposite direction. She looked up to see that he had turned back towards her. He wrapped his arms around her as she leaned her head against his muscular chest.

"Don't ever think that Hermione. Please. I'm sorry, for all of this. I just didn't want to make this worse than it already is. I thought if I stayed away you'd think nothing of it, even though it's all I think about."

"Do you mean that?" Hermione said with a shaky voice, letting her tears fall onto Draco's black v-neck shirt.

"Of course I do."

"Then maybe you can explain to me what this is?" At this time Hermione let her arms drop back to her sides, and Draco did the same. She stared up at him, noticing he slightly towered over her height.

"I can't say I have an answer…"

"Then just answer this. It's simple, and don't you dare say 'because I wanted too.' Why did you kiss me?"

"I know it'll make no sense to you, but I've wanted to kiss you since fourth year. I know I made your life hell and it kind of is my defense mechanism. You were right the other day you know." He paused for a moment and grabbed her hand in his. "I do hold a grudge against Potter. He didn't want to accept my friendship and he has always gotten the attention. Most of the teachers love him, the community loves him and he is never forced to do anything, he does it because he believes it is right. I was jealous of you because no matter how hard I tried, you were better than me at everything but flying a broom and I hated the Weasel cause of the way you looked at him. Like he was some courageous man and it made me feel like shit to feel beneath him.

"Everything I was taught growing up turned into a lie when I started school here. I was taught muggles were beneath me, you proved that wrong. I was taught only the pure bloods deserved status. Harry proved that wrong. I was told riches were everything, Weasley proved that wrong. My family's name may be feared but the truth is we're all cowards. My father is a coward, my mother should have left ages ago but she is a coward, and last but not least, I am a coward."

"I don't think you're a coward Draco." Hermione was looking right into his eyes and before she could even say another word, Draco had her face in his hands and was leaning down to kiss her. It started soft but soon his hands slid down to her hips and her hands were in his hair. This time the kiss wasn't fierce, but it just showed their longing for one another. Draco again tasted the peppermint on Hermione's lips and beckoned her to open her them by sliding his tongue across her bottom lip. Hermione gave in without a struggle. Draco needed her and pulled her body as close to his as he possibly could, he then lifted her and moved her legs around his waist. This was the first time in a while he was able to forget the vanishing cabinet and how weak he felt. She made all darkness around him brighten up with light like a patronus in a cloud of dementors. Her body felt so warm against his, he needed more. He moved so her back was against the wall and he parted his lips from hers, only to start moving them down her neck to her collarbone. Hermione let out a slight moan and kept her eyes closed.

"Hermione, HERMIONE!" A voice belted out. It sounded so close, as though the person who the voice belonged to would turn down the corridor and see her with Draco at any second. Hermione's face suddenly gave a panicked look and Draco let her release her legs and slide down the wall to solid ground.

"You better go." Draco stated, not actually wanting her to leave.

"Not without you." And with that Hermione grabbed his hand and started to run towards the stairwell. Draco followed cautiously, but at a quick pace, wondering where she was dragging him.

"_Alohomora_!" Hermione whispered and a seemingly unused classroom door opened. As soon as she let go of his hand and shut the door, Draco couldn't see a thing and didn't move out of a childhood fear. He hated darkness.

"Hermione, what are you doing?"

"Oomph! There we go." Then he could feel Hermione at his side again pulling him along for a few feet. Suddenly, it felt as if she was slowly lifting of the ground. Before he could pull her down, thinking he'd be saving her, she opened a door in the ceiling and pulled herself through it. The empty classroom flooded with a ray of moonlight through the ceiling door and in that light, Draco could see a rope ladder that Hermione must have climbed to get to it.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" She exclaimed impatiently.

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><p><em>Next chapter is titled "The Tower" if that helps you at all. Sorry for the cliffhanger. Love you guys! Look for the chapter in the next few days and REVIEW! :)<em>


	4. The Forgotten Tower

Hello my dears. I'm more impatient with posting my own chapters than you are! Haha, I was going to save this for tomorrow, but I'm about to go on a date that I'm betting will have me coming home wishing I never went so...

leave me reviews to make me feel better when I come back from the date from hell! This is my 3rd chapter up in just over 24 hours. Whoa.

**Now about the chapter. I am sorry the timeline and POV's are a little choppy and there isn't much action in this one, but I feel like it is necessary for next chapter and most importantly, the events in chapter six! That's when the shit hits the fan! :O Next chapter will be up Monday morning/ afternoon. Look for chapter six on Thursday afternoon. That one is going to be pretty long if I work with it the way I want to!**

** Please please please review. I am so happy for the reviews I have gotten so far, they've all been so positive, but give me some details! What is it that is making you all so crazy about this story? Also, I have a Christmas Dramione story I'll be posting on December first. Eeep! I'll give you all the title in the next chapter. I LOVE YOU GUYS! - _Valerie Ann_**

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><p>Draco climbed the ladder as quickly as could. Once able to pull himself up, he shut the trap door behind him. Looking up, he realized they were on top of a tower that he had never seen before.<p>

"Where are we exactly?" he asked nervously.

"Welcome to the abandoned Astronomy tower. I read about it a few years back in Hogwarts: a History and decided to search for it. Apparently, once they constructed the new tower in the year 1138, they no longer had a need for the classroom or the tower, since it's smaller than the others and is out of the way of the other classrooms. The Divination room is in the lower part of this tower if you didn't recognize the placement."

Draco finally took in his surroundings. There was a gazebo to his left with an arranged pile of blankets, pillows, books and what appeared to be muggle technologies. "I'm just going to assume right out that you come here often. Do Potty and Weasel know of this place?"

"Yes I do, and could you please refrain from calling them names? I never told them of this tower. Harry could easily find it, I don't think he ever bothered, and Ron doesn't even know of its existence."

"How come you told me then?"

"I'm not quite sure… well come on now."

Hermione walked over to the gazebo and lay under it in her nest of blankets. Draco unsurely walked after her and lay beside her. He looked up and noticed the roof of the gazebo was enchanted the same was the Great Hall's ceiling was and it looked as though it didn't cover the stars in the sky at all. While he was staring at the stars, Hermione cuddled up to him and set her head on his chest.

"Beautiful, isn't it? All the other towers always have people bustling around whether they are supposed to be there or no. This is the only private one as far as I know." Hermione said while nuzzled into Draco. Her hair smelled of the sweetness of coconuts and flowers, and her breath always had that ting of peppermint that you could only smell if you were within inches of her. He looked at her and could only think about how beautiful she was, and there is nowhere else he would rather be at this moment then lying under the gazebo with Hermione.

"What are you thinking?" She asked, turning to face him with her head still on his chest.

"Only about how you're the most beautiful girl I have ever seen."

Hermione couldn't remember feeling like this before. She may have been infatuated with Ron, but when she was with Draco all her problems seemed to float away as though we were non-existent. She pictured all the girls she had seen him with over the years and the thought came to her mind that maybe he used that line on every girl. Yet, she couldn't recall him walking around with a muggle born like her. Maybe she was different, and meant more than all those other girls. Before she could elaborate more on these thoughts, she fell asleep and for the first time in a while, felt at peace.

Draco was about to ask Hermione what was on her mind when he noticed her eyes had stayed shut and her breathing had become softer. For a long awaited moment in Draco's life, he felt tranquil with the world. He didn't want to be with Hermione for physical reasons, although she was absolutely beautiful with a light touch of curves, there was so much more to her. He could hold a conversation with her and she could keep up with his banter better than anyone else. It always frustrated him when he would win an argument because the other person had no idea what to say. With her things were exciting and he felt so secure. He felt like he could easily tell her all his secrets, but as bad as he wanted to, he knew he couldn't. She was fighting for the good side of the war and battles soon to come, but he cowardly fought for the wrong side to save himself. He knew it was wrong and he knew that to live, he needed to do this deed for Voldemort. It would possibly bring back his families reputation and high stance in the dark wizard society so they would no longer be mocked, but respected.

As he thought more about how he would go about his plans, the more Draco worried about Hermione. He only wanted to live, but he also wanted her. There was no possibility that he could have both. If he didn't do the job, he could possibly run away, but that would put his parents in danger and he wouldn't see Hermione. If he did do the job, he doubted that Hermione would ever want to see him again, and that would nearly be worst than dying at this point. He had to admit, he was falling for her. Draco felt so selfish since he didn't want to drag her into his darkened world, but she was the light. He would follow that light anywhere.

Hermione awoke to the sounds of owls being sent off from the nearby owlery, hooting as they passed. She lifted her head to realize she had fallen asleep on Draco's chest the night before. She slowly pulled herself up so she would not wake him. As she sat up, she couldn't help but stare. Most of her memories of him included a scowl on his face and a mocking tone. Yet, here he was now looking so serene lying there with his head slightly turned to on one side, on arm along his chest and the other tossed lazily to the side, for before it was wrapped around Hermione. Suddenly it clicked to her that it was a school day, and if owls were already being sent off, it was probably time for breakfast.

"Draco, wake up!" Hermione said as she slightly shook his shoulder, but his only reaction was a groggy moan. She lowered herself to kiss his cheek as whisper in his ear. "Wake up darling, we're going to be late," in the only sultry tone she could manage. With that Draco shot up to a sitting position in the pile of blankets.

"Oh bollocks, it is so bright." He mumbled.

"Good morning sunshine!" Hermione greeted with a smile. "We better get to the hall before anyone gets suspicious."

"You go first; I'll wait a few minutes so no one gets the wrong idea."

"Okay, see you at breakfast." And with that she opened the trapdoor and disappeared into the room below.

As Draco waited, he recalled the previous night's dream. All it consisted of was different visions of Hermione. In this dream he saw her laughing, her hair in loose curls down to her shoulder blades and she was wearing an orange sundress. She smelled of her coconut shampoo and radiated in the sunlight, like an angel. The next vision was of her looking at him as though he wasn't worth the dirt on her shoes. Like he was nothing and meant nothing. Her curls swirled angrily around her in the wind outside of the castle, but everything was black and white like an old film. The disgusted look she gave him also showed how hurt she was, as though he had done something wrong. He was hoping he would never have to see this face in real life.

After a few minutes of contemplating, Draco headed out the trapdoor and to his dorm to get changed for breakfast.

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><p>"Hermione! Where have you been! I have so much to tell you and when I came back in the commons last night, I had Ginny go fetch you and she said you weren't in your bed. Where have you been all night?" Harry questioned Hermione as she walked the fat lady's portrait only a half hour before breakfast was supposed to start.<p>

"I'm sorry, I fell asleep in the library and when Madam Pince left, I think she forgot to make her rounds through the library so I woke up there this morning." Hermione quickly said, as it was the first excuse that came to her mind.

"Oh, okay well sit! I have a story to tell!"

Hermione managed to get Harry to wait until she changed and got ready, and as soon as she walked down the stairs from the girls dorms, was bombarded with his tales of the previous evening. As they walked down to the Great Hall together, he told her all about how he had managed to get the memory from Slughorn by bumping into him on the way to Hagrid's hut, and by the end of the night he was so drunk and miserable, it wasn't that hard to get it out of him. He also told her how Dumbledore was able to explain more about the Horcruxes and how Harry could help defeat the Dark Lord. Oddly enough, he didn't seem as excited about the prospect of saving the wizarding world, as he was that Ginny and Dean had broken up after dinner that night. After they sat down at their usual table, Harry wasn't able to finish telling all the details before they saw Katie Bell, surrounded by her friends at the end of the table.

Katie had been gone from school since her incident in Hogsmeade in mid-October. Everyone stared in awe as she hugged her friends, completely clear of whatever dark magic was placed upon her on the fateful day, the one that had sent her to St. Mungo's for months.

"I have to go talk to Katie; I'll be back in a moment." Harry said as he was already rising off his bench and walking towards the other end of the Gryffindor table.

Hermione nodded and sat playing with her food. She looked up from her plate, only to see a pair of steel grey eyes staring at her from across the room. She couldn't help but blush slightly and looked down smiling before she could have possibly noticed the fear in his face, or how he kept twitching slightly whenever he looked in Katie's direction.

Draco was on edge. He had heard mumbles of Katie returning all morning and couldn't help but feel remorseful as he thought of how she had missed the holidays, her Quidditch matches, and months of possible memories all because of his stupid job. He looked over to Hermione only to see her look up, smile and look back down to her plate, trying to hide the red rising in her cheeks. What would she do if she only knew what a monster he was? She would probably run from him and send the order after him as soon as she feasibly could. Even though she wasn't on the best terms with the Weasel right now, what would she say if she only knew that he had been the one who had poisoned him? She would never understand that it was an accident, although it is not as if Draco would have mourned the Weasel's death.

As soon as he thought that, Draco saw Ron walk right up to Hermione and sit next to her as though they hadn't had any discretion over the last few months. He leaned over and whispered in her ear, and she began to giggle as though it was the funniest thing in the world. Draco's head began to feel hot and his fists clenched. This jealous feeling was new to him, but he knew deep down, that Ron was probably the best man for Hermione, because all that Draco would bring was trouble. He couldn't watch anymore and stomped out of the Great Hall, and down to the dungeons.

Hermione was still blushing from her staring at Draco when Ron came and took the seat right next to her at the table. She was afraid there conversation would go awkwardly when Ron leaned over and whispered in her ear.

"Is it just me, or does Trelawney's hair make her look even crazier than usual? It looks like she stuck her finger in an electrical socket."

Hermione couldn't help but giggle at the remark. She smiled at Ron for the first time in months.

"How are you Ron?" she finally managed to say after a moment of just looking at it.

"Better than I have been in months I suppose," he said with a half smile. "I-I miss you Hermione."

"I miss you too." She replied truthfully, and her heart lightly fluttered at the admittance.

"I've been meaning to talk to you since, well… you know what happened. I tried looking for you around the school before quiet hours but couldn't find you. I called for you as well. Where were you?"

Hermione gave Ron the same story she gave Harry about falling asleep in the library, and he nodded. It wasn't an unusual thing for her to be in the library all night. "Well, I'm here now. What did you want to talk about?"

"Okay," he started slowly, "I know I've been a downright slimy git these past few months and you didn't deserve any of that. You've been nothing but an amazing friend to me and I pushed you away. I should have gone to Slughorn's Christmas party with you… I heard about what happened with McLaggen" Ron trailed off after saying that. He looked at her as though he wanted to ask a question, but was too nervous.

"Nothing really happened with McLaggen and I. We went to the party together and I learned he was a total prat. That was it." Hermione stated, and Ron seemed to sigh in relief.

"Oh, erm, I'm sorry about that. He's a total wanker anyways. He doesn't deserve a girl like you… er anyways, I was wondering if you'd want to go to the party in the Common Room with me after our next Quidditch match. I know it isn't for 2 weeks, but I figured that would give you some time to think about it." Ron said with a nervous tone in his voice.

"Uhm, su-sure. Well we've got to go to Charms class now, walk with me?"

Ron smiled as he rose from the bench and held out his arm. Hermione got up and looped her arm through his as they started to walk out of the Great Hall.

She wasn't sure why, but her heart still beat slightly faster when she was around Ron, and she got nervous like a young girl with a crush. But, where would that leave Malfoy? Then again, he hadn't talked to her for two weeks, then after last night not much was said before they left separately to their dorms. Ron has always been there for her… well, sort of. It was as if they were meant to be. They'd been best friends for over five years and she wanted nothing more than for him to be a part of her life again. Yet, Draco was mysterious and seemed to care for her. He needed her and she needed him.

By the time they made it to Charms, Harry was already seated and smiled up at Ron and Hermione as they entered the class arm in arm. Lavender frowned in their direction but Ron held up his smile and sat next to Hermione, just like he used to. Hermione was beaming as well, until she looked over at the pale, grey eyed Slytherin glaring at her. Her smile faltered as she saw the pained look in his face but before she could mouth any words to him he looked down at his paperwork, seemingly defeated.

As the class began, Harry cast a _Muffliato_ spell and began animatedly telling Ron the story he had told Hermione early this morning about Slughorn. He then started telling them both about his conversation with Katie Bell and how he was sure it was Malfoy, before he could explain his reasoning, Hermione bursted out,

"It wasn't Malfoy! It couldn't have been!"

Ron and Harry both looked at Hermione as though she had been confounded.

"Are you alright Hermione?" Ron asked, looking legitimately concerned.

"I'm fine," she replied, "but I just think we should keep our options open when we're discussing this kind of dark magic. We can't just blame someone because we dislike him. I don't think Malfoy is capable of that magic."

"We don't know what he is capable of. That is just the thing; we can't rule him out unless we are absolutely sure," retorted Harry.

"Well I just don't think he should be our main focus. We have plenty of others we could be investigating right now." Hermione was already frustrated. It couldn't be Draco, at least not the Draco she knew, or thought she knew.

"Who else are we supposed to be looking at 'Mione? It's not as if we have a long list of possible dark wizards that have access to our school." Ron replied, flustered that he and Hermione had only been friends for a morning and they were already arguing.

Hermione stood up from her chair, as she noticed class was just about to end.

"How about you figure it out then! You both seem to have made your minds up already," she scoffed. Ron and Harry could only look her direction with bewildered looks upon their faces as she stomped out of Charms, not bothering to look back at the blonde haired boy who still looked as though he'd be sick from what he had seen at the beginning of class.


	5. Feelings that won't die

Well hello again my lovelies. _**WARNING**: PLEASE DON'T HATE ME._ This chapter is probably not what any of you expected. Hell, it wasn't what I expected but as I was typing it just kind of kept flowing through my fingers and onto my computer screen. Also, this is a little short cause as I was typing I just sort of stopped at that point and felt like you guys could deal with a cliffy for a few days.

Please review. I'm getting thousands of hits, but I am not getting that many reviews. I already have the plot for the story all planned but this random point I put in the story changes it a bit, and I want to know what you think of it, and what parts of the story you would like more details on later in the story! Also, on a random note, if you were wondering how my date went, it went great... until he stuck his tongue down my throat with no forewarning. Sigh, why can't I just have Tom Felton... **NEXT UPDATE ON THURSDAY NIGHT, then either Saturday or Sunday. Enjoy, review, tell me what you think, I love you guys. -_ Valerie Ann_**

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><p><strong><em><em>**It had been three days since Hermione had seen Draco, and she avoided Ron and Harry as much as possible. She either stayed in the library during meals, or had Ginny bring her up some food to their dorm. The last thing she wanted to do was sit next to her friends at the Gryffindor table if it would only get her glared at by Malfoy.

"I shouldn't even care what he thinks. It's not as if he has made an effort to see me these last few days." Hermione mumbled under her breath. Dinner was about to get out in the Great Hall, and everyone would soon flood into the Common Room. Before she had to deal with all that, she ran down the stairs into the empty commons, and out into the 7th floor corridor. She unlocked the door to the abandoned classroom and re-locked it behind her. She found her ladder again, and climbed up through the trap door. As soon as her head rose through the floor she heard a noise come from her tower, and pulled herself through the door, shutting it with her foot and simultaneously pulling out her wand at whoever was up here.

Draco stared back at her as though he had been stunned. He was wearing a black suit with a white shirt and skinny black tie. Once Hermione saw who it was, she lowered her wand and looked around. The sun was setting and the gazebo had been decorated with white Christmas lights. Her pile of blankets had be folded neatly on the side, and the area where she usually situated herself had a picnic set up with a dozen yellow and red roses laying on top of a picnic basket.

Hermione stared at it all with a look of shock on her face, when she finally mustered up her voice to speak, she asked, "Did you set all this up?"

Draco took a few steps forward and held his hand out to her, "I was just about to owl you, but it seems you beat me to the punch."

Hermione took his hand noting the smirk on his face. She reached back for his and linked their fingers together. She felt underdressed when she looked at what he was wearing again. Her hair was soothed down in loose curls, but she wasn't wearing any make-up and her outfit consisted of some torn up, dark blue skinny jeans and a maroon v-neck shirt.

"What is all this for?" She softly inquired.

Draco reached up an arm to scratch the back of his neck as though he was nervous. "I-I haven't seen you in a few days, and I was wondering if everything is alright." He paused for a moment as though to ponder the next thing he was about to say. "I noticed you have been talking to that Weasley again, is there anything go-going on between you two?" his voice was soft and he seemed anxious for the answer, gripping onto her hand.

"No." She answered simply, while shaking her head. His hold on her hand seemed to loosen, but their fingers stayed tangled together.

"Come here." He said in a breathy voice, as he led her to the gazebo.

Hermione sat upon one of the cushions and looked around again, taking in her surroundings. "This is so beautiful Draco."

"No, you're beautiful." He said while letting go of her hand and taking a seat across from her.

Hermione couldn't help but blush as he said that. "I'm sorry I haven't been around for a few days. A lot has been going on and I've just been keeping myself busy."

"You don't have to apologize. I know the feeling. Are you hungry?"

Hermione had barely notice the growling in her stomach until he had asked her. She hadn't stuck around for Ginny to bring her a plate of food, and was in the library during lunch. "I'm absolutely starved."

"Well it's a good thing I brought plenty to eat then." Draco said while grabbing the roses and holding out his hand with them, towards Hermione. "These are for you."

She smiled as she pulled them up to her nose and smelled them. "Oh Draco, this is so wonderful. You shouldn't have gone to all this trouble." Really she was happy he had. No one had ever given Hermione roses, and she couldn't wait to put them on her nightstand.

"It was no trouble, and you're worth it." Hermione was so enticed with the roses; she hadn't noticed the meal spread before her and the candles floating above them now.

After two hours of eating and talking a little about everything except their families and friends, Hermione was starting to feel tired. "I'd better go back to commons Draco," she kissed his cheek then grabbed her flowers and rose from her spot on the picnic blanket. "Tonight was lovely." Before she could walk away towards the trap door, he had grabbed her hand and turned her back to face him. Draco stood up before she could protest and wrapped his arms around her small frame.

"Please don't leave me tonight," he whispered in her ear. He leaned down his lips to meet hers and soon felt her hands rise over his shoulders and into his hair. Before he could take it any further, which he wanted to, she leaned away from him and ducked out of his grip.

"I'll see you tomorrow Draco." And with that, Hermione was climbing down the ladder through the trapdoor.

Draco stood there on the tower, alone for what felt like hours. He decided he didn't want to go back to the Slytherin common room. He was sick of his so-called friends questioning him about his involvement with the Death Eaters. He was sick of Pansy and her coddling him whenever he ran into her. Whatever they possibly had, which wouldn't even be considered a legitimate relationship to most, was gone as soon as he had kissed Hermione in the prefect's bathroom. Draco finally moved to the edge of the tower, and overlooked the grounds of Hogwarts.

He wished Hermione would have stayed. The other night, holding her seemed to make all his night terrors vanish, and it was the best night of sleep he had gotten all year. He went back over to the gazebo and vanished everything from the picnic. He laid out the blankets again in their messy heap, and laid down, imagining that Hermione hadn't left him alone on the tower and hoping to get another decent night's sleep.

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><p>Hermione snuck back up to the Gryffindor common room since it was after hours. As soon as she entered the door behind the fat lady's portrait, she sighed in relief once she saw the room looked empty. As she walked over towards the fireplace to maybe read a little bit to clear her head, she saw gangly red-headed boy sleeping on the antique couch beside fire. She smiled at the peaceful look on his face, but his body was in a seemingly uncomfortable position. Hermione debated with herself for a moment on whether to wake him or not. She hadn't really seen him since she said she had accepted his invitation to accompany him to the next Quidditch game's after party.<p>

"Ronald, wake up! You're neck will be sore if you keep lying on it like that." Hermione had given in and decided his comfort was more important than her avoidance of him.

"Wha- Oh! Hermione, I was waiting for you to come back and I must have fallen asleep. Where is everyone?" Ron asked; obviously still a little out of it from just waking up.

"In bed, I assume."

"Why are you in after hours? I checked the schedule and you weren't on prefect duty." Ron said sternly, quickly recovering from his recent waking, and rising in his seat.

"Oh, er, I was just in the library again and lost track of time." Hermione swiftly replied.

"No you weren't, Hermione." He said with a harsh tone in his voice.

"What? What are you talking about, Ronald?" Hermione retorted, feigning a look of confusion.

"I checked the library Hermione. Madam Pince said she hadn't seen you since lunch today. Also, where in the bloody hell did you get those from?" Ron said, pointing at what she was holding in her hand.

Hermione had completely forgotten about the roses she had received from Draco. "Fine… I'll tell you the truth." She said to buy herself a moment of time as she thought up an excuse. She held her head up and looked him straight in the eye so it wouldn't come off as though she was lying again. "I was walking around the grounds. I needed a little breath of fresh air and found these flowers along my walk. I just figured they'd look nice in my dorm."

"Oh, well why couldn't you have said that beforehand? Why lie?"

"I-I didn't want you to be worried. I know students are not allowed on the grounds after dark with everything that has been going on." She knew this lie would be easily believable since Ron, himself had been accidentally poisoned.

"Oh, okay I get that. Well you should have at least told someone where you were going. You can't take chances and just go wondering off in these times." Ron's voice sounded sincere, as though he was actually worried.

Hermione sat on the couch Ron had just been sleeping on and he sat right next to her. "You don't need to worry about me Ron, I can handle myself," she said softly, not only trying to convince him, but herself as well.

"You telling me not to worry about you is like telling the sun it can't rise. It just won't happen no matter how hard you try." Ron said with a smile on his face.

"You mean that?" she asked, her heart starting to beat a little faster after he spoke.

He gently set an arm around her pulling her into a side hug. "Every word. I care about you Hermione, no matter what we've been through this year, and I always will."

Ron looked over at her with a smile on his face and she tried to smile back with a tear falling from her eye. His smile faltered once he saw she was sort of crying. "I'm sorry, I didn't meant to make you-" and before he could finish his sentence, Hermione grabbed the collar of his Gryffindor button up shirt, and kissed him, after the roses in her hand were lazily thrown next to the fireplace.

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><p><strong><em>(AN) I promise you, this IS A DRAMIONE STORY. Please don't freak out on me! I just felt this needed to be done cause she obviously hasn't yet resolved her feelings for Ron. _**


	6. Sectumsemptra

EEEEP! This is my favorite chapter yet, but it was also the most difficult to write! I am sorry I am a day late on posting, but I'll post another either tomorrow or the next day to make up for my tardiness. (:

_I would also like to make a correction_: I try to stick to the book as much as possible fact and date wise unless it is necessary to change it for Dramione goodness. I have been making notes on the 6th book and using various sources for information to keep it as accurate as possible, and I realized that Draco was _never_ a prefect in their 6th year. He quit after the Inquisitorial Squad was disbanded. I am not changing the first chapter, cause I would have to change the whole argument, and I like it as is.

**If you notice any other inaccuracies, please let me know. Unless it is an AU fic, I hate when the writers don't do their research and state facts of HP that are nowhere near how it was written. Please review if you read it, I would really like to know your thoughts since this is such a serious chapter. Now enjoy my fellow Dramione shippers! - _Valerie Ann_ P.S. I'm sorry about the last chapter. I know none of you liked that last sentence, but I made up for this chapter. ;)**

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><p>Hermione awoke to the sound of an owl clawing at the window of the Gryffindor common room. She sat up and took in her surroundings. She gasped as she realized she had fallen asleep on Ron's lap, and started to remember the previous night's events. She stood up slowly, as to not move the couch and wake Ron. She soothed down her hair, straightened out her maroon v-neck from the previous night and walked over to the window. As she opened the window, an Eagle Owl hopped through the opening from its perch outside the window and held out its leg to Hermione. She untied the note attached to the owl's foot, patted its head, feeling sorry that she didn't have any owl treats on her, and sent it back out the window. Looking back at Ron, she snuck back up to her dorm, sat on her bed while the other girls still slept, and opened the letter.<p>

**Hermione,  
>I can't stop thinking about you. Meet me for breakfast in an hour at our special place?<strong>

**-D**

Hermione jumped up from her bed, rushed to her trunk to grab a pair of black straight leg jeans, a red t-shirt and a thin white jacket. Carefully, she stalked out of the room filled with sleeping girls and ran to the girl's bathroom. She showered in a dash and began to dry then curl her hair. She even put a little bit of eyeliner and mascara on.

As she made the finishing touches on her appearance, she noticed she still had 20 minutes left before she even needed to leave. Hermione walked down the stairs and peeked around the wall to see if Ron was awake. He was still asleep and lightly snoring on the edge of the couch. While she watched him, she began to wonder what had come over her the previous night. Why had she kissed Ron? She had to admit, for years she had dreamt of him taking her into his arms and kissing her with years' worth of pent up longing and frustration, but that isn't the case. Instead, it was Hermione who had started the kiss, and Hermione who had stopped it nearly the moment after they had started. The solemn look on Draco's face as she left the tower popped back into her head, and she nearly ran back to that trap door just at the thought of him. She instantly regretted kissing Ron, and as she broke it off, his face went from a look of shock, to smug. With that look, she wanted to smack it off his face. He began to lean in again but Hermione brace her hands against his chest. Without another word she laid her head on his lap and pulled a blanket around herself, and in moments she was out like a light.

Hermione pulled herself out of her little reminiscence once she saw that Ron was stirring. Before he could fully awake, she darted across the room to the swinging portrait, and let herself out, walking towards the abandoned classroom. Her level of nervousness was rising as she unlocked the classroom and walked towards the hidden ladder. Should she tell Draco she kissed Ron? It was nothing really; maybe he didn't need to know. After all, just yesterday she had told him there was nothing going on between her and Ron. She finally started to climb the ladder and rose through the trap door.

"You're a little early, as per usual." Draco said while smiling at her. He was wearing a black v-neck and tan cargo shorts.

Hermione looked around and saw the picnic set up again, just had it had been the previous night, but this time with breakfast foods.

"Oh Draco," and with that she ran into his arms and rose on her tiptoes to kiss him.

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><p>It had been over a week now since Hermione had kissed Ron. She had avoided him at all costs for the first few days, and it seemed as though he had already given up and was ignoring her as well, giving her the occasional hurt glare but she never looked back at him. She had spent as much time as possible with Draco. It seemed as they got closer to the end of the school year, he became more and more stressed. The bags under his eyes had appeared again and his smile was a rarity. Yet, he wouldn't ever tell her what was on his mind when she asked, simply stating every time, "It's better if you don't know."<p>

There were only a few days until the Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw Quidditch meet. Hermione noticed that Harry and Ginny were spending more time together and she smiled at the thought. She knew that Harry liked Ginny but was too afraid of putting her in danger, and what Ron would possibly do to him if he found out.

It was time for lunch and following her recent routine, Hermione ran up to the tower instead of going to the Great Hall, and ate lunch with Draco. He had seemed even more distant than usual today, and was hardly looking at Hermione. His grey eyes seemed so dark, they were almost black.

"Draco, is everything okay?" Hermione asked with concern before taking a bite of her sandwich.

"Er… yes. Everything is always better when I'm with you." Draco stated with an obviously fake smile.

Hermione set her food down and scooted herself to Draco's side and lay her head on his shoulder. "You know you can tell me anything right?" she whispered.

"I know… I love you Hermione." After he said that he turned his head and kissed her forehead.

Hermione's head shot up. "You- you what?"

Draco bit his lip for a second for before looking her straight in the eyes and replying, "I'm in love with you Hermione. I know we don't even have a label on what this is and I'm still confused about everything because all I want to do is protect you and frankly, I don't know if I'm worthy of that position. But out of everything and this mess that is probably coming forth, all I want is you." He paused for a moment to observe her reaction before continuing, "You're probably the only good thing in my life right now, and I don't want to screw that up." Draco finished his words full of truth.

Hermione softly leaned in kissed his lips, then tilted their foreheads together, her arms resting on his shoulders. "There is no possible way you can do that. I'm not going anywhere, because I love you, Draco."

"How could a scab like me possibly get a girl like you to fall in love with him?" He said jokingly with a smirk on his face while he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her body closer to his.

"You're not a scab. You're perfect, to me at least."

Draco leaned his head back, away from her and stared into her eyes with a serious look on his face. "I'm anything but perfect Hermione. You'd be better off without me," he said, shaking his head and looking down.

Hermione tightened her grip around his neck and pulled him close to her again. "Do I have to repeat myself?" She tilted her head to kiss his cheek. "I love you, and I'm not going anywhere, and you better not either."

The rest of their lunch date consisted of cuddling in the pile of blankets and talking, like they always did. When it came time to go back to class, Draco told Hermione he would be busy tonight, he promised Blaise he would hang out with him in their commons. Hermione didn't over think it, and just smiled and said it was alright, because it gave her a chance to catch up with her friends, since she felt like she had hardly seen them. They kissed goodbye and headed to Defense Against the Dark Arts with Professor Snape separately.

The truth was Draco had no plans with Blaise, just in the Room of Requirement. The more time he spent with Hermione, the less time he spent there, and the more his family's lives were in danger including his own. He was also starting to feel guilty for taking her time away from her friends. Well… maybe not the Weasel, but Potty and Weaslette. He had a clue that Harry was probably onto him, although Hermione never mentioned it, but he was fighting the good fight. Maybe if he ended Voldemort within the next few months, Draco could be out in the open with Hermione and they could be in a real relationship, while no one else would give a second glance. She was the brains of her trio of friends and he knew the more time she spent with Potter, no matter how much Draco would hate it, the better chance they had at the possibility of a future together.

He could only imagine the look on his father's face if he ever found out Draco was with Hermione. It almost brought a smile to his hardened features. Lucious had only brought him up with fear and a regimen. He taught Draco racist ideals and how only those of pureblood were elitist enough for magic. He was the one who forced Draco take the dark mark (which he concealed from Hermione) against his will in hopes that it would bring the family's name back in favor with Voldemort.

Draco looked over at Hermione across the classroom and she quickly smiled at him, then went back to focusing on her assignment. How was he supposed to bring Death Eaters into the school when there was a possibility of Hermione being hurt? The idea of losing her had been a common one in his mind recently, and he didn't want that to happen. Yet, was it selfish of him to want to live? He didn't want to die for Hermione; he wanted to live a long and happy life with her. He would jump in front of a killing curse for her any day, but as long as he could help it, Draco Malfoy was going to live.

After DADA, the next class dragged on as well and soon it was dinner time. Hermione and Draco shared a chaste kiss under a stairwell, and then went their separate ways as she headed to the Great Hall, and Draco acted at first as though he was heading towards the dungeons, then switched directions to go up the stairs.

….

Hermione entered the Great Hall with a skip in her step. Today Draco had told her that he loved her and she couldn't contain the giddy feeling she had. She knew that Harry suspected Draco was doing something for the Dark Lord, but Hermione knew it wasn't possible for the man she was in love with to do anything of the sort. She took a seat next to Ginny and started to serve herself a plate.

"You've got some nerve coming down here." Ron sternly said, glaring at her from across the table.

"And why is that, Ronald?" Hermione retorted.

"Please you two, not here," said a softly spoken Ginny.

While still glaring at Ronald, Hermione respected Ginny's wishes and figured this long awaited conversation could wait a little longer.

"Ginny, where is Harry?" Hermione asked, changing the conversation. He was the whole reason she was down here, since she had been hoping to convince him Malfoy's intentions were none of the wrongful sort.

"Erm… I don't know. I haven't seen him since lunch. He's been disappearing a lot at nights. There are some days he doesn't come into the commons until near daylight and he carries his invisibility cloak with him everywhere."

As Ginny was talking, Hermione looked across the room without thinking, and noticed a darker skinned boy with very short and very curly hair laughing with some members of the Slytherin Quidditch team. It was Blaise, and yet Draco was nowhere to be seen. Hermione jumped up from her seat, ignoring the confused calls from behind her as she ran out of the Great Hall. She didn't know where she was headed, but she had a feeling going up the stairs was her best chance.

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><p>Draco had only been in the Room of Requirement for a few minutes before his anger got the best of him. He had, yet another failure with the vanishing cabinet and with his thoughts still lingering on Hermione, he ran down to the often empty bathroom in the 6th floor corridor where he had first talked to Hermione and had a semi-decent conversation with her. He stared at his reflection in the mirror, his hand on either side of the sink basin. He no longer recognized himself. The smirk was gone and had been replacde with a look of fear. His grey eyes seemed nearly clouded over and his hair and clothes were lacking decency. Draco had never looked so disheveled in his young life.<p>

In his reflection, he noticed the tousled version of a boy who had experienced too much, was crying, and soon he couldn't contain his tears. He looked down and soon heard the squealy voice of a girl behind him sigh.

"Oh dear… not again. Please boy, let me help you." Moaning Myrtle said reassuringly.

"I've only made this worse. He'll legilimense me and he'll see her. I've put her in so much danger but I was too selfish for my own good." He let his tears fall freely into the sink now while Myrtle floated behind him with a look of sympathy upon her sheer face.

"Don't . . . please don't cry . . . there has to be a way to make this better."

Draco could hardly contain his sobs as pictures of Hermione's lifeless body formulated into his head. "What have I done . . . I-I put her in danger without even knowing it. The only way out is to let him kill me b-but I don't want to die." His body was trembling now as he figured out the only solution. "The only way to protect her is to die, because to live without her . . . it would be much more terrifying and painful."

Before Myrtle could reply, Draco looked back up at the cracked mirror, and saw in its reflection, none other than Harry Potter standing behind him. As quickly as he could, he grabbed his wand and faced him, shooting a curse towards Harry that missed him by mere inches.

The curses kept flying back and forth between the two, all while Moaning Myrtle cried and shrieked in the corner, demanding they stop. The bathroom was demolishing further with each rebounded curse.

Draco was in a state of aggression. He was only thinking of his duel training over the previous summer with the Death Eaters. His face had contorted to a look that would strike fear in any person's heart and the curses he was shooting weren't meant to simply disarm.

He began to shout, "Cruci-" but before he could finish, Harry had bellowed "SECTUMSEMPTRA!" and the only thing that came next was pain.

The tears began welling up in his eyes and he was covered in a warm liquid. He heard a door open and the sounds of a panicked girl screaming at Harry, who seemed to be in a state of shock and couldn't move. Myrtle was yelling obscenities and outcries professing murder while the girl who had shoved her way in the room was whispering in a soft, but worried voice. She was kneeling in his blood, tears falling down her face. Her wand was in her right hand, but she was clueless as to how she could possibly fix this. Draco tried to concentrate on what she was saying, but before he could comprehend, everything faded to black.

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><p>Hermione had meant to run up to the seventh floor, but as she was rising from the landing of the 5th, there was the unmistakable sound of an awry duel coming from the bathroom in the next corridor. She ran forward, her right hand gripping her wand tightly as she pushed open the bathroom door. The next scene she saw was the last she was expecting.<p>

Draco, lying on his back on the cold tile floor a few yards in front of her. There were deep gashes all across his chest and face, and he was whimpering from the pain. He was surrounded by his own blood and Moaning Myrtle was screeching in the corner. A distraught Harry stood a few feet from her, only staring at Malfoy's body, unsure of what he could do.

"HARRY, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" Hermione shrieked.

"No—I didn't—. " Harry replied softly stumbling over his words.

But before she could listen to his reply, Hermione had ran over to Draco's side kneeling in his blood, but afraid to touch him because of his numerous wounds. She began to sob and tried to think of all the healing spells she had taught herself, but they had all evaded her thoughts in her time of need.

"Please Draco. It's going to be okay, I promise. You'll be better and it'll just be you and I on the tower again before you know it." Hermione was whispering, trying to reassure herself more than she was him. She couldn't lose him, not now, not ever. He didn't appear to comprehend her words. "I love you Draco."

Hermione hadn't noticed Snape had entered the room until he kneeled on the opposite side of Draco's mangled body and began to whisper a counter cure that was slowly sealing his deep wounds. There were still large, red slashes across his chest, like week old lesions, but Draco had already lost a lot of blood. Snape was trying to lift Draco up and was muttering something about scarring. All Hermione could do was stand up and watch. Her face was streaked with tears, and her clothes covered in blood.

On his way out the door, Snape gave Harry a reproachful look, demanded that he stay in place, which he already had without question, than Snape was at the door, with a bloodied and battered Malfoy attempting to walk at his side, and they began to head to the hospital wing.

Hermione finally processed some of her thoughts, and walked straight over to Harry, stepping within a foot of him. Her eyes were puffy and red, a trail of tears still leaking from the corners of her eyes. She gave Harry the most disgusted look she could muster at that point and muttered, "How could you?" Her teeth gritting together and her voice full of spite. With that she was out the door, and attempting to follow the bloody path of Snape and Draco.

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><p><strong><em>Review, yeah? I love you guys :)<em>**


	7. The Hospital Wing

Yes, I did change the story name. I did it cause I was checking the Dramione tabs today, and saw a story with a name VERY similar to mine. But, they first published theirs a few months ago, and I just never saw it cause I guess they hadn't updated in a while but since I picked up the name recently, I changed it to avoid confusion.

**Next note:** this is a filler chapter, the info is important but there isn't too much going on. I typed it quickly and I was hoping to get some ideas from you guys about what you would like to see in the reviews for chapter 6 since that was my favorite chapter... but I got _one review_... so thank you to** GothicBu****nny123!**** I really want to keep this story going and I have so many ideas but I don't feel like I have much of a following and it's disappointing. I was going to make this chapter longer but I cut myself off. To all you people who read it and don't favorite, alert or review, do you not like it? If so, why? I am open to constructive criticism. And if you favorite, what did you like about it, and what would you like to see in the story? **

**Next chapter will be up by Friday. Sorry for the wait, but this week is crazy for me with 2 papers, 2 presentations, a final and a test, so bear with me. I might surprise you earlier, you never know! Please review! -_ Valerie Ann_**

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><p>As Draco awoke, he tried to sit up to grasp his surroundings, but pain coursed throughout his body. He fell back on his elbows trying to maintain his composure and resist the urge to scream out. He realized that he was in the hospital wing, and wearing a flimsy button up medical gown. From what he could see of his arms and chest, was covered in what looked like red and searing burn marks, like healing wounds.<p>

The events of the previous evening finally flooded his head as some of the pain subsided. Draco was about to call for Madam Pomfrey to see if these red marks all over his body would go away, when he looked to the bed on his right, and noticed a frail girl lying the bed a few feet from his. Her curly, caramel brown hair spread out across her pillow in all direction. Her legs were curled up in the fetal position and a frown was upon her face. Her breath was soft as she was still sleeping.

Draco began to worry seeing as Hermione was in a hospital bed. It was noticeable that she wasn't wearing the proper gown, just her jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt.

"Madam Pomfrey!" Draco said in the quietest voice he could muster, as to not wake Hermione.

"Are you alright dear? You really shouldn't be moving around. With the Dittany freshly on those, if you shuffle around too much it might not take full effect and you'll scar." Pomfrey said in a light but scolding voice.

"I don't care. Is Hermione okay? Is… Is she hurt?" Draco asked, his fright and uncertainty showing through his tone.

"The girl is fine. She came in a few minutes after you were brought in and refused to leave your side no matter how much I tried to force her back to her commons. Stubborn one she is, but you can tell she cares for you. I finally had to give in and offer her a bed, because it was clear if I didn't let her stay I'd have trouble on my hands." Madam Pomfrey said as she walked back into her office, not waiting for his reply.

Draco sighed in relief and smiled at the thought that Hermione cared for him. A lump rose in his throat when he realized she probably wouldn't care so much to be around him once Harry told her what spells Draco was using in their duel yesterday. He had nearly crucioed Harry without so much as a second thought. He had gone into what he called his stone-cold mode. Those were the times where he even scared himself. In those moments that he occasionally went into that mode he never thought of his own feelings. It was all anger and cruelty in those moments. When he felt like that, he could hear his father's voice screaming in his head telling him what to do. It was as if Draco had no self-control in those moments like a person under the Imperius curse.

Hermione began to stir in her bed, and then open her eyes. She smiled at Draco seeing he was up as well. She jumped of her bed and to his side; without thinking of his injuries she wrapped her arms around him.

"Oompphh!" he spurted at the shock of the pain.

"Oh Draco, I'm so sorry I completely forgot. I-I…" Hermione looked like she was about to cry over the fact that she had caused him pain. She sat down on the edge of his bed, careful not to touch him.

"It's okay love, calm down. The pain was worth it," Draco said reassuringly. "You didn't have to stay here last night. You looked tired; you should've gone back to your commons. People will start talking you know."

"I didn't want to leave you. I don't care what the others say, let them talk. If last night taught me anything, it's that I want to spend as much time with you as I can. I don't want to hide anymore Draco." She cut herself off as his expression turned to one of fear. "I want to be able to kiss you in the halls and hold your hand. I want to stop lying to my friends and they'd learn to accept it. It might take some time but I am just so tired of lying."

"Hermione, I just don't think it's a good time to drop a bomb like this just yet…" stated Draco, attempting to change her mind.

"Are you ashamed of me?" Hermione snapped

"No. You are not anything to be ashamed of. You're beautiful, intelligent, the most courageous girl I've ever met, and I'm in love with you. I would scream it from the Astronomy tower if I could, but now isn't the time."

"Well then when do you think the proper time will be for you, Draco?" she stated flatly, trying to hide her anger.

"Will you stop being so ridiculous, Hermione? Do you remember who my father is? Who I am friends with and the people I deal with on a daily basis? If they ever found out about us, we'd both be in danger and I refuse to put you through all that just because you want to hold hands and dawdle around." He was nearly shouting at this point, and paused to calm himself for a moment. "I ju-just don't want you hurt because of me." He had lowered his voice close to a whisper.

Hermione looked at him, tears glistening in her eyes but not yet falling. Her angry expression had fallen into a slight frown. "You don't have to go through whatever you're dealing with alone, you know." She was looking him straight in the eyes to make sure her words sunk in. "If we're in any kind of relationship at all, you have to tell me what is going on, because it is obviously affecting whatever this is." She said motioned her hands between the two of them.

"Hermione, you know I-"

"Yes, you're trying to protect me, but stop! I thought it was kind of assumed that by now, we're in this together." She said, her frustration coming out through her tone again.

Draco looked away from Hermione and stared up at the ceiling, his head resting on his pillow.

"Hermione, you're going to miss classes. You better go." He said, his face straight and tone flat.

"You really think it's going to be that easy to get rid of me? All the work due today, I have already turned in and I owled Parvati asking her to pick up any assignment I might miss."

Draco smiled at her determination to stay with him. "Fine then." He scooted over to the far end of the bed, flipped the covers over and patted the empty space next to him, motioning for her to lay with him.

"I don't want to hurt you," Hermione stated nervously.

"I promise you won't." said Draco, reassuring her.

Hermione smiled at him and swung her feet onto the bed, then pulled the covers over the both of them. She seemed scared to move closer to him, in fear that she would touch and hurt him. Draco grabbed his wand and with it, closed the curtain around the two of them. He laid out his arm motioning for Hermione to pull closer to him.

"Are you sure?" she asked with concern.

"I'll be fine, and it'll hurt less if you just get over here rather than making me pull you in, which I will do." Draco said with a smirk on his face.

Hermione sighed and laid her head on his shoulder, as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder. Draco kept himself from wincing from the pain, which subsided after a few silent moments. With Hermione in his arms, all his troubles and pain seemed to slip away into oblivion. He could smell her coconut shampoo and the usual hint of peppermint on her breath. He noticed from her slow, but steady breathing that she had fallen asleep. She looked so at peace, and she probably needed the rest.

He wondered if he should tell her about the job he was demanded to do by Voldemort. No… he couldn't. She would run as far as she could and probably have him Avada Kedavra'ed before You-know-who could. It was clear that she cared about him, but there was no possible way that would last if she had even the slightest idea about all the trouble he has caused over the past year; all the unmentionable things he has done. And for what? Sure, his family's lives had been threatened, but the funny thing was, that wasn't what his father cared about. Lucius only wanted the family's name restored in the circle of Death Eaters. After Lucius had severely screwed up the duty he was given at the Department of Mysteries the previous year, he had been sent to Azkaban and lost all favor of the Dark Lord.

Draco lifted his left hand to mindlessly stroke Hermione's soft cheek and felt the pain hit him at once. He tried to not wince or let his muscle's stiffen, for the beautiful sleeping form next to him would probably feel it and wake up. As the pain subsided, Draco decided it would be better if he too, slept.


	8. The Warning notes

LONGEST CHAPTER YET! Next one even longer! (I'm getting the hang of it) Okay, I know I'm late on updating but I have a good reason. I locked myself out of my bedroom with the spare key inside, and have been sleeping in my roommates room all weekend. Dumbest, but best excuse ever, right?

First, thank you for all the reviews, alerts, and favorites I have received lately. They make my day! I have a question for you guys... I was initially planning on writing smut (hence the story rating) but I've been having trouble finding a placement for it. Would you guys mind if it isn't for quite a few chapters? Also, I am open to songs suggestions, or suggestions of stories to read. If you have written a dramione fic, put the name in the comments or PM me and I'll check it out :)

Last note: I want to start song suggestions :)_ A Lack of Color - Death Cab for Cutie_, _Dice - Finley Quaye & William Orbit_, and_ Speeding Cars - Imogen Heap_. They aren't the best suggestions, but I thought of them as I was writing.** I love you guys! Please review! - _Valerie Ann_**

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><p>It had been two entire weeks before Hermione had finally talked to, and forgiven Harry. He simply thought she was disappointed with him, and didn't know the real reason behind her resentment after his incident in the bathroom with Malfoy. To be honest, she still hadn't forgiven Harry entirely, but she was seeing less and less of Draco, and was beginning to feel lonely. She even took to talking to Ron again, although their conversations were very simple and consisted of forged courtesy. It had been nearly four weeks since their kiss, and she just couldn't bring herself to discuss it with him. She knew he was hurt, and probably just took it as a mistake she hadn't intended on making, which she hadn't.<p>

Hermione had started to go back to Great Hall for meals, as she had given up on running to the tower hoping Draco would be there, for he hadn't in a few days. Things were different in her group now, but the familiarity is what made her smile. Sure, Harry and Ginny were now together and Ron gave her glares occasionally when he didn't think she was looking, but other than that it was almost back to normal. Hermione had caught on that although Ron was being nice, it was obvious he was still upset that she had avoided him, and taken back her promise of going to the Gryffindor game's after party last week in the commons. Although she wished she would have been there to witness Harry finally growing some nerves and kissing Ginny, she didn't regret staying on the tower that night with Draco, or not meeting Ron.

Draco was back in the Room of Requirement, where he had spent most of his time for the last two weeks. He was still so back and forth between his emotions and unsure what was right. One day he would work tirelessly on the vanishing cabinet to ensure that his family lived, and that he may one day have a chance to live, and be with Hermione. But, if he did this, there was no chance Hermione would ever continue loving him.

If he didn't, he would surely die a painful death. This was a debate that had been running through his head non-stop since that first kiss with Hermione in the prefect's bathroom. He was starting to figure that there was no chance for him and Hermione in the future.

The dispute in his head lately hadn't been to about how to find a way to spend the rest of his days with her. Either she would hate him, or he would die. There was absolutely no in-between, no matter how hard he thought about it. Lately, all that had been on his mind was which of the two would be worse.

Would he rather die and leave her behind, or live and deal with the pain of losing her? Either way, she would probably move on, marry the Weasel, and completely forget about Draco in the future. The thought made bile rise up in his throat and his eyes to water over, without releasing tears.

He figured for now, he would try and find that in-between. He promised himself that he would find a way to both live, and live with Hermione. There had to be some way. Any way, but nothing seemed plausible. Draco was almost 17 now, and Hermione would be 18 at the start of the next school year. They were both so young, and yet they focused their youthful lives on war efforts. She for the good side, and he for the dark.

Draco walked around the piles of rubbish and out the door of the Room of Requirement, heading to the tower, hoping to see Hermione who he hadn't seen in days. Over the past two weeks it wasn't as though he was avoiding her, he just hadn't had very much time to spend with her, even though he wanted to spend every moment possible with her on the tower, it just wasn't promising.

He climbed up the familiar rope ladder through the trap door only to see that once again, she wasn't there. He climbed back down, and ran down the stairs to the Great Hall, seeing as it was dinner time. He peeked in those large wooden doors and saw her sitting next the 'The so-called Chosen One' laughing and smiling. Oh, how he had missed that smile of hers. She looked so happy and the bags under her eyes had disappeared, replaced with small laugh lines on her face. Draco began to walk away and down to the dungeons, still debating with himself over what the future could hold for them.

Hermione turned towards the door of the Great Hall just as it was closing, and saw a flash of blonde hair before it slammed shut.

"Erm, sorry everyone but I just realized I forgot to edit my Charms essay, and I'm going to run to the library to go finish. I'll see you later." She said as was already getting up from her seat.

"See you later!" Harry called cheerfully while holding hands with Ginny, as Hermione was already running towards the door.

She opened the door to see Draco mindlessly turning the corner. He looked disheveled and his pace was slow, his posture lacking. Hermione picked up her pace and followed him.

"Draco!" she called when he came back into her sight.

He turned to her, a sullen and guilty look upon his face. He stayed silent and just stared at her as she walked within feet of him.

"I haven't seen you in days. That must take effort considering we both live in the same castle and have classes together." She stated, unable to hide the minor tone of anger sarcasm in her voice.

"I'm sorry love, I've just been really busy." Draco said unsurely, walking towards her with his arms held out, hoping she would embrace him.

She slapped his arms down harshly.

"I don't understand you! I thought after our discussion in the hospital wing you would make even more of an effort to be with me!" She paused trying to contain her anger, grateful that the rest of the students were in the Great Hall so she had no need to be inconspicuous. "I told you how much I wanted you. I told you where I stand, but where do you stand?"

Draco kept his face straight, trying to get everything he wanted to say past the lump that had risen in his throat.

"Well?" Hermione persisted. "What is this Draco? Is this all a joke to you? You toy with me, then disappear for days only to drag me back in. It's beginning to seem like a cycle."

"I love you, Hermi-"

"Stop saying that!" she cut him off. "It doesn't mean anything if you say it with no actions behind it."

"So, you don't feel the same way?" Draco asked softly.

"Of course I love you. I'm the only one who has proved that though! I seek you out, I've lied to my friends, and I've told you how I was willing to risk any repercussions of making this public. Yet, we still don't even have a label on this. All I want is you, and you say the same, yet you continue to completely leave me out of your life until it is convenient for you!" Hermione was breathless from her loud retort, her mouth turned down in the corners.

"Hermione, I told you I've just been really busy. I've spent all my free moments with you." He stared at her, trying to assess her temperament. "I really do love you Hermione. I've meant every word I've ever said to you."

"Then why do you persist to hide things from me? Do you think I don't notice these things? Do you I conveniently forgot about that time I waited outside the Room of Requirement for you, and you still haven't mentioned what you were doing in there. Give me some credit here Draco, I'm not daft." Hermione nearly slipped that she had watched him on the Marauder's Map, but decided to keep quiet. She was allowed at least one secret if he insisted on having so many.

"Do you think I like this? I don't want to be away from you for any longer than I need to be. I'm just keep-"

"Keeping me safe… you say that every single time Draco." She willed herself to take a step closer to him and look him in the eyes; her face never faltering no matter how much his actions actually affected her.

"Look at what I've been through in the past 6 years. Do you remember hearing about the troll? The Shrieking Shack? Or how about my experience at the ministry last year? I almost died." Hermione paused.

Draco flinched at the thought of Hermione nearly dying from the curse that Dolohov shot at her last year in the Department of Mysteries. He tried not to think of the fact that his father was the one who led the Death Eaters there, as did she.

"I've been through a lot in the past few years Draco. I've watched my friends die, or nearly die. I've been in situations that no seventeen year old girl should ever say they've been through, and I've tried everything I can to prepare myself for the inevitable war. Do you honestly believe that keeping me in the dark about whatever is going on with you, will keep me safe?" she knew there was too much truth in her words for him to avoid the subject now.

"Hermione, the way you look at me now… you make me feel like I matter, like I have a chance at being happy." Draco paused to try and compose himself. "You won't look at the same anymore."

Hermione could see in his eyes that he was clearly shaken up.

"I told you, you don't have to do this alone. I-I won't judge you." She showed her fear in her words. He was after all the son of Lucius Malfoy, and if he thought he would judge her now after she hadn't judged him for all the things he'd said to her in her past, it was obviously more terrible than she had previously thought.

Despite her uncertainty, Hermione reached out for his hand and pulled him into the closest empty classroom, dreading that dinner would get out soon, and students would come trudging down the hall ruining her chance to have an actual conversation with Draco.

"Hermione, you're not understanding me. I don't want you to have any part in this." He said while towering over her and releasing her hand. His voice carrying that sarcastic undertone that reminded her of their spats in the past.

"Why not? If I mean anything to you, then you'll confide in me."

"I can't!" Draco's voice quivered in a yell. He glared at her, then turned to walk towards the door.

"Don't you dare leave me here Draco! You're just a scared little spoilt prat!"

He turned to face her again. "Oh, I'm a prat now, am I? If you cared about us at all, you would leave this be. You have no idea the things I have had to do, or the weight I am carrying on my shoulders. Not everything is relating to you, Potty or Weasel you know." At this point Hermione was backed up against the wall with Draco's arms on either side of her.

"I believe I asked you not to call them names." Hermione stated sternly. She looked at him curiously, than changed mirrored his own famous smirk on her lips. "Honestly this is all rubbish if you ask me."

"What is rubbish?"

"We're not even in a relationship yet and we're already being secretive, lying and getting in each other's faces. What makes you think we'd work in an actual relationship? We can't even talk properly."

With that she ducked from under his arms and to the door in just a moment.

"Oh now who is walking away?" he spat as she was out the door.

Draco took off his robe, throwing it on the floor, and pushed up the sleeves of his black button up shirt. He felt like screaming or punching a wall. This is exactly what he had been avoiding for the last 2 months. He didn't want to have this talk and planned on evading it for as long as he could. He grabbed a piece of parchment lying on the desk, scribbled out a note and ran up to the owlery as fast as he could. He spotted his Eagle Owl, attached the note to its leg and sent it off. Draco knew he could no longer hide from the inevitable.

* * *

><p>It had been nearly two weeks since Hermione had received that note from the recognizable Eagle Owl. Nearly two weeks since Draco had been in classes, gone to meals, been on the tower, or even spotted in the halls. It was now early June. The sun was out, Ron was as testy as ever, Harry was hopelessly in love, Ginny was studying an insane amount for her upcoming O.W.L.'s and Hermione had spent as much time as possible researching Horcruxes, and the possible originator of Harry's potions book, which he had thrown into the vanishing cabinet in the Room of Requirement after his incident with the Sectumsemptra spell a month ago.<p>

Hermione closed the book she had be reading, her eyes weary from exhaustion, and looked up at the clock. It wasn't late, but she figured she would go back to the common room, and tell Harry about her recent discovery in the old Prophet she was reading earlier. As she was walking, she subconsciously reached her hand into her pocket and pulled that note out of her pocket that she had kept always on her person for nearly two weeks.

**Granger, **

**I don't want things to end, but it may be for the best. I only want you to be safe. Soon, I will send you another note, and all I ask is that you follow the instructions I give you to exact detail. **

**I love you still,  
>- D<strong>

Hermione had read over the note hundreds of times by now, but still didn't understand it, nor had she even thought of sending a reply. Draco obviously knew that he wouldn't see her; otherwise the note would have no purpose. She hadn't any word from him since, and had over analyzed each word he wrote as though the note was written entirely in code.

She worried about him constantly, but refused to cry. They weren't meant to be, and she knew it. No one would ever accept it, and she was still unsure how she went along with it. She did indeed care for him, but he made her question what love was. She had said it to him, but did she mean it? He had made her get butterflies and messed with her emotions. If that was what love was, Hermione wanted no part in it.

She mouthed the password to the common room and went through the opening the swinging portrait offered, instantly spotting Harry who was sitting next to Ron, beside the large window, attempting to finish an essay and obviously procrastinating.

Hermione marched over to him and explained all she knew of Elaine Prince, trying to convince him that she was the one who made all the notes in the margins of his potions book. Hermione didn't honestly believe that the originator of those many darks spells and side notes was a girl, but she had tried to convince Harry, solely for the purpose of her own hit to her intelligence since Harry had done so much better than she had in potions all year.

Harry and Ron both practically scoffed at her and Hermione walked off flustered and fully intending to go back to the library, but instead running up to her dorm to retrieve some more quills and parchment so she could make notes that could possibly connect all the clues she had unraveled.

She got distracted and began organizing her charms notes on her bed when she heard a low tap on her window. Hermione opened the window with caution, but only saw an Eagle Owl perched on the ledge. She quickly grabbed a treat for it, and detached the note from its leg with haste before shutting the window again.

Opening the parchment slowly, she read

**Hermione,**

**I will send you another note within the next few hours. I need you  
>to pack up a bag with any basic utilities on hand. Do not let your<br>wand out of your site, whatever you do. Stay safe.**

**With love, **

**-D**

After rereading the letter for possibly the tenth time, Hermione stared at the sheet of paper blankly. The writing was not Draco's normal elegant calligraphy but more of a scratchy scrawl, obviously written quickly. Blindly following the instructions, she grabbed her small red clutch with an undetectable extension charm and began to shove whatever she had in her sight into it. After realizing that a change of clothes, some snacks, parchments, books, quills and the wand in her pocket should be enough, she walked down into the commons again, only to run into Ron at the bottom of the stairs.

"Mione, I thought you said you were going to the library?" he asked.

"I-I was, but I got distracted."

"You? Distracted?" Ron smiled at the thought.

Hermione playfully hit his shoulder and smiled, completely forgetting she had come down for a forgotten purpose. Still holding her clutch, she went and sat next to the window and Ron sat beside her.

They started chatting like they did last year, and it felt so familiar and comforting to Hermione, like nothing had changed.

Cutting off their conversation, Hermione looked around the room for a familiar face, with round glasses.

"Ron, where is Harry?"

"Oh, he got an urgent message from Dumbledore right after you went upstairs and went straight to his office."

"And you just forgot to mention that until now?" Hermione said, her annoyance showing in her tone.

"Sorry, I wasn't thinking about it."

Hermione glared at him and sat in silence, hoping Harry would come back soon so she could bombard him with questions.

It seemed like a while before Harry ran into the commons and up to his dorm ignoring Hermione's calls, and within moments was back at the bottom of the stairs panting, holding a few objects in his hands.

He explained that he needed to be quick and threw the Marauder's Map towards Hermione and a pair of folded socks at Ron and rushed out and explanation about where he was going with Dumbledore and what they were doings. Hermione tried to hide the look of horror on her face but failed. Harry explained that the sock had his bottle of Felix Felicis in it and for them to take it and watch the map for Snape and Malfoy while he and Dumbledore were out the castle.

Before she could demand that he instead take the bottle of Felix, Harry had run out the door. She looked at Ron, asked him to give her a moment, grabbed her clutch off the nearby table and ran back up to her dorm. She tried to inspect both notes that Draco had sent her but again failed to decipher any meaning.

She had only been upstairs mere minutes when she heard another tap on her window, and opened it to see the familiar owl again. She tore the note from its leg and shut the window before the owl could peck her for not giving it a treat. The message looked crumpled and it was clear that it had again been sent in a hurry when she opened it to see the familiar, yet disheveled scrawl.

**You don't have much time. Grab your things and leave the grounds if possible.  
>If not, go into the abandoned classroom near the Slytherin commons. Lock the<br>doors and use every protection charm you can on the room. Stay safe.  
>-D<strong>

Hermione read through the note, before crumpling it, throwing it on the ground and kicking it under her bed. Who does Malfoy think he is, telling her what to do? She had a shook off the voice in her head, telling her to hide, telling her something bad was about to happen, and instead walked back down to the commons to see a confused Ron holding a pair of socks and staring at floor.

He seemed disconnected to her presence until she lightly tapped his shoulder.

"I believe we were given a task, now let's go. Grab your protean galleon; you're going to need it." And with that she was half-pulling Ron out the door and towards Room of Requirement, the map in hand.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Sorry for the cliffy! Next chapter should be fucking awesome (excuse my language, this is in M after all.) -VA<em>**

**_(EDIT A/N) I went through the chapter and attempted to fix any mistakes I noticed. I finished this at 2am, be kind :) Also, I would like to note that this chapter has only been up for 10 hours, and I've already had more hits and visitors than any other chapter! And it isn't even noon yet!_**

**_Please Please Please review. I've gotten so many likes and alerts, but one review, which is upsetting. Thanks to Lingo10 for being such a faithful reviewer! The comments let me know what you think and what you'd like to see so please help me out here. _**


	9. The Beginning of the End

Well hello again my lovelies. I'm posting a lot sooner than I planned. I couldn't stop my writing fever... even though it's finals week and I should be studying.

**First: I MADE A DRAMIONE TUMBLR**! _burningthroughthebloodline(dot)tumblr(dot)com_  
>It'll let you know when I update, if I need ideas for the story, plus its full of Dramione and HP goodness! If you don't want to review on here, message me on there, and I'd love to run ideas by you guys, so go follow me if you have a tumblr! Or better yet, if you don't have one, GO MAKE ONE! :)<p>

**Second: I need you guys to do me a favor.** This darling _harrypotter-fanfiction(dot)tumblr(dot)com_  
>just started her tumblr. You can submit fanfics, artworkmanips, recommendations for fics to read, drabbles, or you can submit an idea for a future fic you plan on writing, or a preview for review by the followers! Fantastic right? It's all HP-based original works, and all the ships are included! Now go follow her as well. **Now go there!** :)

**_Sorry for being off topic in the AN but it was needed. Now finish this chapter and either PM me, ask me on tumblr, or comment below and let me know what you think :D_**

* * *

><p>Right before they got to the door, Ginny came bustling down the stairs.<p>

"Where are you to going?" She looked strangely at the scene before her. Ron looked as though he had been confunded with Hermione holding his wrist and pulling him towards the door.

"Just in time Ginny, do you have your wand on you?" Hermione asked.

"Erm… yes." Ginny replied nervously.

"Good, follow me." Hermione said in her most leader-esque voice while going through the swinging portrait towing Ron with a confused Ginny following closely behind.

Hermione knew she had to take the lead, for without Harry, the others seemed to be lost. She led the two frightened Weasleys down the 7th floor corridor to the undetectable entryway in front of the Room of Requirement.

"Ron, have you got your galleon from the D.A. last year?"

Ron looked at her blankly for a moment before seemingly snapping out of his funk and reaching into his pocket, and holding his hand out with the small golden coin.

Hermione grabbed it from him, tucking her clutch under her arm and grabbing her wand. She pointed it at the galleon, muttering a low incantation until it heated up showing her the charm had worked.

"Why do you need the D.A. coin now? I doubt many people carry theirs around since Umbridge found them last year. I haven't carried mine." Ginny said.

"Well if anyone is carrying it, then they will come and we need them now." Hermione replayed, still keeping her courageous façade, for Draco… her Draco was just on the other side of the wall she was standing next to.

Within a few minutes Neville came running down the corridor, followed by a skipping Luna.

Neville set his hands on his knees and his breath sputtering.

"I… got your… message… what can I….. do to help," said Neville, taking a deep breath between every other word.

"I got it too, I am so glad to be with my friends again," Luna said in her usual dream-like voice. A smile was on her lips and she held her hands behind her back, swaying her shoulders as she talked.

"Okay, I need you all to listen." Hermione said in a voice that demanded respect. Ron stood up straighter, Ginny's frown disappeared into a line, Neville rose his shoulder's attempting to puff out his chest, and Luna still stood there swaying. She was a little disappointed with the turn out, but a couple of old D.A. members were better than none.

"First, I need you all to take a sip of this, make sure you leave enough for everyone." She said as she grabbed the socks from Ron's hand, pulled out the bottle took a sip and handed it around. "Ron, you take the map. We're going to need to split up, and you need to watch for Dra- Malfoy." Her façade slightly faltered at the mention of his name. Ron grabbed the map from her hand and nodded, showing his comprehension.

"Okay now Luna, you come with me, we're going down to Snape's office" before she could finish though, Hermione was cut off by Ron.

"Don't you think it'd be better for us to be grouped together Mione?" Ron asked.

The last thing Hermione needed right now was to be alone with Ron. "No, it is better this way. Let me finish. Ron, Ginny and Neville; you'll stay here and watch the map. Try and stay out of site if someone comes down the hall. Watch for Malfoy and if you can't see him, he is right behind that wall. Keep your wands on hand and do not let that doorway out of your site no matter what." She said while pointing to the stone wall beside them.

"Luna, you follow me to the dungeons. We're going to watch Snape. If any of you," she said while gesturing to the two Weasleys and Neville in front of her, "need us, keep your galleons on you. I don't have mine, but I'll stay with Luna. Same goes for you. Do. Not. Separate no matter what." She finished, annunciating her words to make sure she was taken seriously.

Before she could hear any more complaints from Ron, she started walking towards the dungeons, Luna skipping beside her.

It had been over an hour of just sitting and waiting before Professor Flitwick came running down the hall and into Snape's office without a word. Hermione hadn't heard a peep from the office until then. She could hear Flitwick mutter something about "Death Eaters", "The Order", "In the castle". Before Hermione could move closer to the door Snape came bursting out of his office alone. He noticed the girls sitting outside his doorway and turned to them.

"Professor Flitwick has collapsed, so if you could please attend to him I must go find the Death Eaters."

Hermione didn't second guess Snape's words and stood up, pulling Luna with her, and ran into the office to attend to the unconscious Flitwick beside Snape's desk.

* * *

><p>Draco was standing at the top of the Astronomy tower; his wand pointed right at Dumbledore's heart, and a few scornful Death Eaters behind him. He nearly took Dumbledore's offer to keep him and his mother hidden from the Dark Lord, that was until his fellow Death Eaters came trudging up the stairs. When they came up, he knew he had to finish the job. There was no backing out now. He was mentally preparing himself to shout the deadly curse when he heard a voice.<p>

_I don't think you're a coward Draco_

He looked around to see if he could find the source of the voice. Was it urging him to fire the perilous hex?

_I'm not going anywhere, because I love you, Draco._

None of the mouths on the Death Eaters were moving. The voice seemed to be coming from no certain direction of them, yet all of them at the same time.

_You're not a scab. You're perfect, to me at least._

With those words, a tint of peppermint carried in the air along with the scent of coconut shampoo. Draco began to lower his wand slowly.

"Hermione." He said in a voice so low no one could hear.

Draco ignored the taunts behind him from the Death Eaters urging him to get on with his duty.

_I told you, you don't have to do this alone. I-I won't judge you._

But he knew the voice in his head was lying. She would judge him, and there was no way living without her could be better than dying a quick death. He could hear the ranting behind him telling him he needed to finish this, but chose to disregard them. He wanted to absorb what he could remember of Hermione's voice before his inevitable death tonight. Narcissa came to his mind. She was a smart woman, if he died which as Dumbledore said, was probably predicted by the Dark Lord, she would run. She'd have nothing left to stay for. He thought of Hermione, and hoped she got out of the castle as he had asked. No reply from her was ever received, but he didn't really expect one.

Draco was still in his Hermione-caused daze when he was pushed to the side by Snape, who was now pointing his wand at the pleading Headmaster. Before Draco could rush out his plea for them to stop, he heard those fateful words.

"_Avada Kedavra_!" Snape spat and a flash of green light erupted from the tip of his wand.

Unable to breathe and unable to move, Draco simply stared at the lifeless headmaster just a few metres from him. He had never been fond of Dumbledore, but he had also never wished death upon him.

"It's my fault," Draco whispered to no one but himself. "I caused this."

"Come on you blithering idiot. Out of here, quickly." Snape growled as he grabbed Malfoy's collar, nearly dragging him down the stairwell.

As they entered the hall that had become a full-blown duel zone, Draco snapped out of his trance.

"Get your hands off of me." He snarled as he pulled himself out of Snape's grip.

As they got to the bottom of the stairwell all the Death Eaters immediately went into action, intensifying the battle and shooting unforgivable curses in every which direction.

Draco sunk out of the group, attempting to sneak past the battle. He wasn't sure where he'd end up, but all he knew is that he didn't want to go report back to the Dark Lord. He dodged misfired curse after curse and was nearing the end of the hallway when he was suddenly pulled into a barely open door, which was shut after him.

Darkness covered the room, but he knew from its whereabouts that it was the transfiguration classroom.

"What in the bloody hell did you do, Malfoy?"

The screeching tone was easily recognizable.

"Hermione, I-" Draco had prepared for this moment. He didn't think he'd ever see her again, but he prepared himself, yet no words that he had recited repeatedly in his head came to mind. Before he could even muster of the courage to really talk, he could feel small fists hitting his chest. He reached his arms out into the darkness and pulled her body to his.

"How could you?" Hermione sobbed, her fists up against his chest as she leaned into it.

"Why didn't you leave Hermione? I told you to leave!" he said in a stern, yet caring tone.

"I stayed for all the right reasons Draco," she tried to contain the unevenness in her voice and lifted her head from his chest. She couldn't see him in the blacked out room, but she did her best to make eye contact. "Why did you stay? You could have left. You could have prevented all this!"

She pushed herself away from his as she yelled.

"Do you even realize what you've done? Your Death Eater buddy Gibbons is dead, and Ron's brother is torn up by Greyback. Are you happy?"

Draco nearly sighed in relief that she didn't yet know about Dumbledore, but cringed at the thought that she knew he was a Death Eater.

"Please just list-"

"There is _nothing_ you could say to me right now that can make any of this better." Her voice contained so much spite, yet was quivering with sobs.

"WILL YOU JUST LET ME TALK?" Draco yelled, trying to control his anger. "You have _no idea_ what I have been forced to do. The orders I have disobeyed and all because of you!"

"What the fuck do I have to do with any of this?"

"You know, I was already second guessing my actions and I already didn't believe what I was raised to think, then you had to come along and mess with my head!"

"Oh, I messed with your head?" she asked sarcastically. "Who is the one who would lead me to believe he was worth it. You were the one who made me think that you had changed and you weren't that boy who used to taunt me. So what am I to you now huh?" She said, emphasizing her final words by pushing him backwards.

"Don't you dare say I haven't changed!" he challenged.

"You're right," she answered softly. "You have changed, you're even worse. You might as well go back to calling me mudblood because back then that is all you were, was talk." She spat.

"Do not ever say that word in my presence. You got that?" his tone was serious, and he now had Hermione pinned against the nearest wall.

"And why is that Draco? What did you honestly assume I would think about all this? You're lucky no one has been killed, at least yet." She said, tears falling down her face as she could still hear the duel just outside the door.

Draco's face softened, knowing her words were true. He had no right to be angry with her. He then surprised her by releasing her arms and wrapping his around her.

Hermione's posture stiffened at his touch. She had missed his musky scent and the way his arms felt around her, but she was determined not to give in.

"Come away with me Hermione. We don't have to deal with any of this." He whispered into her ear. "He threatened my family. You have to understand that I would never do anything like this if I didn't have my family at stake. I would never want to purposefully hurt you."

She melted at his words and wrapped her arms around his neck, unable to control her sobs any long, Hermione let her tears fall upon his shoulder.

"I can't go Draco." She said in a trembling voice.

"Why not?" he questioned, "with both our lives at stake, wouldn't it just be better for us to leave? We could run into the country and build ourselves a cottage. We can just forget the war and the deaths." He leaned his head against hers and set a gentle hand on her cheek.

"I've fought for the good side from day one. I'm not about to abandon them now." She stated, her voice still shaken.

"You promised you'd never leave me." He replied, tears welling up in his eyes.

"Draco, you broke that promise two weeks ago. You knew this would happen and you knew that sooner or later I'd find out."

"I have to go Hermione. If they find me in here with you… I don't even want to think of what would happen." Draco said as he unwrapped his arms from her waist and turned towards the door.

When he was near the door, he heard a low mumble, almost too quiet for him to hear. "Draco, don't go."

He still couldn't see her in the darkness, but he could hear her sniffling against the wall.

"I'm putting you in danger Hermione." He forced his feet to move back into the direction of her sobs. "You listen to me; I don't know how this is going to turn out. I failed the Dark Lord tonight before I did a rash thing; do you want to know why?"

"Yes," she replied in a low whisper.

"I heard your voice. You stopped me in my place, and because I failed him I can't guarantee that I'll be alive tomorrow." Draco felt a lump rise in his throat and tears fall out of his eyes. He tried to compose himself, because he didn't want her last memory of him to be like this. "I love you Hermione, and I always will."

"I love you too Draco," Hermione then rose on the tip of her toes and kissed him softly. "Stay. The Order, they can protect you and-"

"Love, do you honestly think they'll want to protect me after tonight?"

"They're good people Draco. They can save you and your family as well."

Hermione didn't know that her words mirrored what Dumbledore had said to him just moments ago on the tower.

"Draco… DRACO!" Snape's voice carried through the closed door.

"I have to go Hermione." He hurriedly reached into his pockets, remembering he still had a spare set and pulled out two coins, handing one to her.

"Is this what I think it is? Is this a proteaned Galleon?" she asked as he set it in her hand. "How did you-"

"We don't have time for questions. I love you, and don't message me unless I message you first. If I don't message you by tomorrow evening well… just expect the worst."

Hermione couldn't contain her sobs again and pulled his lips to hers. She had been so angry with him for the last two weeks and then he suddenly walks in showing that he actually cared for her and she fell all over again. She released him and tried to make out his facial features in the shadows.

"You promised you wouldn't leave, and I'm making you stick to that," she whispered.

Draco felt a small hand intertwine with his own and suddenly he was being pulled through the darkness. He could hear a door open, and through that entryway there was only darkness as well. Snape's calls sounded like they were getting closer to the door until they had switched rooms. Suddenly the room lit up with light, as a fire had been lit in the hearth. He recognized their location as McGonagall's office that connected to her classroom.

"Hermione what are you doing?"

"Saving your life," she murmured as ran her hands through the red clutch that had been shrunken in her back pocket all evening. "Do you trust me?"

"With everything I have." He said as he looked at her for the first time in two weeks. Her hair was disheveled and she had a split lip and a small gash on her right shoulder, bleeding through her dark red t-shirt. Her black jeans were torn in odd places compared to the one she had bought ripped, and she had a concentrated look on her face as she dug her arm elbow deep in a clutch that looked too small to even fit her hand in.

Hermione finally found the pouch of floo powder she had placed in her clutch earlier that evening. She stood up, placing a small handful of the sparkling powder into his open palm. "Listen carefully, I need you to go to the Headmaster's office, and stay there until I get in there. I'll make sure the password is changed by McGonagall so Snape can't get in."

"Hermione, I can't-"

"Don't question me. If you're worried about your mum, I'll talk to Lupin. I told you, you didn't have to go through this alone and I'm sticking to that." Her tone carried her sincerity. She was no longer crying, but he could see the redness that remained around her eyes and he hated himself for causing it.

He reached up to caress her cheek when they heard the door to the classroom open, the next room over.

"Go. NOW!" Hermione said, pushing him towards the fireplace. He threw in the powder and walked in it, disappearing into the fireplace of Headmasters office just as Snape walked into the room, noticing the vanishing green flame.

Hermione pulled her wand out, pointing it straight at Snape, who in turn pulled out his wand as well.

"Miss Granger, I'm going to have to ask who just went through that fire?" he sneered.

"For your information, I just came through it. Mine turn to ask a question, why did you Stupefy Flitwick?" she pressed.

Snape simply glared at her, and before she could protect herself, he shouted, "_Petrificus Totalus_!"

Hermione felt her head hit the floor roughly but couldn't move to or gasp at the pain throbbing throughout her entire back. Snape was already out the door and she heard him call, "It's done," as he entered the hallway. The sounds of the battle ceased at once.

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><p>Draco was pacing alone in the Headmaster's office, wondering whose office it would become now that Dumbledore was gone. Hermione obviously didn't know all the details of what he'd done, other than bring the Death Eaters in and it was only a matter of time before she would hear, and probably regret saving him. Was she honestly expecting the Order to save him after he hadn't taken Dumbledore's offer earlier that night? What would happen if someone walked in before Hermione did? They would probably kill him on spot without a second thought.<p>

_Where is Hermione anyways?_ He thought

He looked at the clock and saw that had been pacing for an hour now.

Did she go back in the battle? Was she hurt?

Draco continued his pacing, pausing every few strides until he finally soft footsteps rising up the stairwell and the doorknob turning.

"Hermione? Is that you?" Draco timidly asked as the door opened. He looked in shock at the face that appeared behind the now-open door.

"Well hello Mr. Malfoy, how lovely to see you here," replied a sarcastic tone.

Draco could instantly feel his hands beginning to sweat and the lump rise in his throat. He doubted this person was low enough to kill anyone, but that didn't cease the fear.


	10. The Headmaster's office

Hello again my dears!** First off** I would like to apologize for the long wait. Nearly 3 weeks now!  
>I promise that will never ever ever happen again. I expected to come home for holiday break from college and have all this free time but I got called into work at my old job in town and have been working overtime all of break. But today was my first day off so I forced myself to sit down and finish writing! My last day of work is tomorrow, so I'll be going back to updating every 2-4 days as was usual :)<p>

**Song recommendations:** _Safe and Sound - Taylor Swift_,_ Skinny Love - Birdy_, _Perfect - Hedley_ and Kraco has recommended _All I need - Within Temptation.  
><em> This chapter is long and informative, yet is in a common setting. Please review if you read it! I love comments that discuss my style, the storyline, etc. even if it's constructive criticism! Also, if you have any song suggestions, I would love to hear what songs my story makes you think of :)** Also, accioedits | tumblr made a graphic for the Chapter 9, and the link is on my profile page, along with a link to my tumblr! I love you guys :) - _Valerie Ann_**

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><p>Draco slowly slid his hand towards the wand in his pocket and straightened out his posture, putting on a façade to hide his fear.<p>

"Hello to you as well Nymphadora." He replied in a flat tone. Tonks stared at him for a moment, her mousy brown hair in a short, unkempt style and her robes disheveled from the battle.

"_Expelliarmus_!" Draco's wand which he had barely grabbed in his pocket went flying across the room. "So why are you here _cousin_," she asked, saying the last word with spite, "come to finish off McGonagall as well?"

"I didn't-"

"Don't use your innocent ploy on me Draco. Now tell me, why did you think I was Hermione?"

"I-I…" he stammered, but stopped mid sentence when he heard heavy footsteps rushing up the stairwell, and the door slam open.

Hermione burst through the door. "Oh thank goodness you're here." She murmured. She had run here as soon as she could move. Her head still aching, the hair on the back of her head lightly caked in dried blood.

She only saw Draco and ran to him, throwing her arms around his neck.

"Hermione?" Tonks questioned with a look of confusion on her face.

Hermione released Draco's neck and spun around to see Tonks standing a few metres away with a wordless expression, her wand still pointed at Draco.

"Tonks! I- What are you- what is going on?" Hermione finally stammered out her words, her eyes moving back and forth between Draco and Tonks.

"Why are you being so friendly with him? Do you realize what he has done tonight?" the mousy brown haired woman sneered.

"You don't understand. He didn't want to bring them here, he was forced. It was a life or death situation!" Hermione nearly shouted as tears filled her eyes.

"What about the Astronomy tower Hermione? He wasn't forced at the point of a wand to go up there, was he?"

"What are you talking about?"

Tonks smirked and looked at Draco. "So Mr. Malfoy, I see you haven't told her everything. Spit it out, or I will."

A look of worry covered Hermione's face and she wrapped her arm around the arm of the grey eyed boy beside her. "Draco, what is she talking about?"

He looked away from the girl he loved to look back at the woman across the room. "Nymphadora, please… don't," he pleaded, his voice shaking with each word.

Hermione unwrapped her arm from Draco's and took a step back. "Draco, what did you do?" she asked sternly.

"Love, you have to understand-"

"Draco, answer the fucking question!" Hermione demanded.

"Love? What in the bloody hell is going on between you two?" Tonks asked, reminding the couple of her presence.

"Tonks, just tell me what he did." The bushy haired girl commanded.

"Well if you must know, Draco here brought all the Death Eaters as support in his quest to kill the headmaster," she paused seeing the look on Hermione's face turn to one of horror. "Hermione, Dumbledore is dead. Harry saw everything and came and told us just after you disappeared from the hospital wing."

Hermione's face turned to one of disgust and she spun around to look at Draco again, tears falling down her cheeks. "That is what all this bullshit was? So you could do Voldemort's dirty work for him?" she took a few more steps away from him and wiped the tears on her face away with her sleeve. "Was I just another part of your plan Draco?" she asked, her voice deceiving her with its quaking words.

"I didn't kill him Hermione. Remember what I said earlier?" a tear was falling down his face now and he stepped towards her, but she only stepped further back. "Remember how I said I failed him because I thought of you? That is how I failed you-know-who. I didn't kill Dumbledore; I couldn't do it because all I could think about was you, and what it'd do to you. Snape saw my hesitation and stepped in before I could even stop him."

"Would you have actually tried?" Hermione asked with her still quaky voice.

"I wouldn't lie to you." Draco replied as he held his hand out to her.

A look of anger flashed across Hermione's face and she slapped his hand down. "Don't you dare say that! That seems to be all you've done these last few months and I don't know what to believe from you anymore!" Draco stepped back at her harsh tone, but she continued, "Why the hell did I even stick around this long? How could I have been so stupid? You haven't changed and YOU NEVER WILL!"

Hermione was fuming now and her eyes were filled with tears of anger that she refused to let fall down her cheeks. She clenched her fists and glared at the boy with blonde hair in front of her who looked as though he had just been stunned. Tonks was still standing by the doorway, her mouth gaping at the young feuding couple.

"Am I missing something here? The two of you…? Together?" Tonks said as her eyebrows creased together questioningly.

Draco simply stared at the girl before him, his lips slightly turned down in the corners and his eyes glazed over. He could see the dried blood in her hair and had wondered how it had gotten there. Was it there just a few hours ago? Tonks' question didn't faze him, everyone would now know their secret, the one Hermione had desperately begged him to set free but he had refused. Now the possibility of losing her had become a reality when he realized everyone else would try to keep them apart. It was even more realistic when he grasped the fact that he had screwed anything up before anyone else could even try.

A few steps of footsteps were heard rising up the staircase towards the doorway. None of the three people inside the office dared to move. Tonks' wand still raised, Hermione's anger still seething and a broken Draco Malfoy still staring at her with the looks of both love and regret in his eyes. The door opened to reveal Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, Slughorn and Sprout entered the large office, followed by Harry and a crouching Hagrid. They obviously had not expected to walk into a scene such as the one before them.

Harry's eyes set on Malfoy who was still staring blankly at Hermione.

"YOU!" Harry yelled, not even pulling out his wand, but just lunging straight towards Draco, who landed to the floor with a loud thud and a flash of pain as Harry quickly pinned him down. The look of anger in Potter's eyes had mutated his face into one Hermione had never seen before but she couldn't help but watch as the sight before her unfolded.

Harry's right fist crashed into Draco's face with a loud breaking noise, but the boy beneath him wasn't even trying to fight back. He was about to bring down his fist again with a pair of small hands enclosed around his wrist.

"HARRY POTTER, YOU GET OFF HIM RIGHT THIS INSTANT!" Hermione demanded while pulling him backwards.

Harry landed flat on his arse, but luckily his arm caught him from landing on his back. He gawked at Hermione, his glasses askew on his face and a hint of blood on the knuckles of his right wrist. Draco lay still on his back, blood rushing out of his now crooked nose.

Tonks had lowered her wand and the teachers just stared at the students, completely speechless.

"What the fuck Hermione?" Harry spat while fixing his glasses.

The bushy haired girl ignored him as she ran to the side of the boy lying silently on the cold stone floor. She grabbed her wand and her pocket and shakily pointed it at his face.

Draco prepared himself for the worst seeing has Hermione's wand was mere centimetres from his face. He scrunched up his eyes and wondered what spell she would possibly use on him. Surely nothing unforgivable. That was one more thing he loved about her; she would never do something if it went against her own morals. He closed his eyes tighter for if she used a harsh spell against him, he didn't want to witness it, even though he deserved it. He waited motionless for what seemed like minutes as he anticipated. He felt her scoot on her knees a little closer to him.

"_Episkey_," she muttered lowly.

Draco felt his nose become very hot, then very cold as it cracked back into place. He opened his eyes and looked confusingly at the girl with the concerned look, sitting on her knees to his right.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

He couldn't help but smirk at the thought of what she had just done. She had saved him… again. "I've been better." He replied.

"So you really didn't do it? Because of me?" Hermione asked.

Draco lightly nodded his head as he rose onto his elbows, knowing exactly what she was referring to.

The couple seemed to ignore the seven other people in the room, all eyes on them for they only were looking at each other.

Hermione threw her arms around the boy before her, making him crash back onto the floor again but he didn't care for even though it'd only been a few hours since she'd been in his arms, it was relieving to be holding her again.

Harry rose to his feet while trying to fumble his wand out of his pocket. He had it out and ready, pointed straight at Malfoy when suddenly a barely noticeable red light flashed across the room and his wand went flying across the room. He looked up to see McGonagall's wand at her side, he eyes glaring daggers.

"Mr. Potter, I will not have you causing any harm in my office, do you hear me?" she said in a voice demanding compliance.

Hermione released Draco and he rose up to a sitting position beside her. She looked at him with worry and although he was wandless and scared, he tried to calm her by entwining his fingers with hers. Her tense stance seemed to loosen as his touch and her breathing evened.

"Hermione, what is this? Do you even realize what he has done? Dumbledore is DEAD! Bill is in the hospital wing, and somehow the rest of us managed to come out unscathed. HE DID THIS!"

Draco felt her fingers leave his as she rose to her feet and stepped towards Harry. "I know what he has done," she replied in the most calming voice she could manage, "and I also know it won't make any sense to you but he really is a good guy Harry. You just have to understand his circumstances were different than ours were."

"He had the same options we've been granted. I saw Dumbledore offer him a way out of all this. He offered him protection and Malfoy still stood there with his wand pointed at him!"

Draco rose to his feet at that comment "Listen Potter, if you overheard that then you must have heard me tell him why I needed to. You also must have seen that I lowered my wand in the end."

"Backing out of it was an option but instead you pansied out! You didn't do it out of courage or bravery, you still wanted to but you just couldn't so you had Snape do your job for you!"

"I AM NOT A KILLER POTTER!" Draco was now within a centimetres of Harry and his features had hardened into anger.

"Oh really? You're not a killer but yet you seemed perfectly content with using the Imperius on Madame Rosmerta, cursing Katie Bell and poisoning my best friend, am I right?"

"I didn't mean-"

"DON'T YOU DARE TRY TO JUSTIFY YOUR ACTIONS. Just because you were actually trying to kill Dumbledore instead of my entire Quidditch team, doesn't make you a better person." Harry's voice was filled with disgust at that last statement. He looked back a Hermione, who was a metre in front of the feuding boys with her mouth open and her arms pulled into her chest as if she was trying to breathe but couldn't. "And what were your plans with Hermione, huh? Just pulling her along for the ride?"

"Do not challenge my feelings for Hermione." Draco demanded. He now looked back at the broken girl behind him as well and stepped towards her, trying to enclose her hands in his but she pulled away.

"Why is it that every time I forgive I find out you've done something far worse than before?" she asked in a soft and shaken voice.

"Hermione, I know you can't comprehend all this now but I think somewhere deep down you know that I did all this because I thought it was what I needed to do to survive," he paused taking in her expression, but it was blank and unreadable. "Then you came along and it became more about doing whatever I needed to, to be with you. That is why I am here now and why I didn't complete my mission. I only want you Hermione."

She simply stared at him as he talked unsure what to make of his words. The man before her was the same boy that used to taunt her when they were children but the war had aged them both past the point of childish insults. They both had done what they thought they needed to do for the war, although it was for separate sides. It dawned on her that every single time he did something to upset her, he would somehow sweet talk her into wanting him again, no matter what he had done. She figured this time would be no different.

Isn't that what love is? Protecting each other, forgiving them for the past and accepting their flaws? That is exactly what Hermione knew she needed to do then. Sure, she and Draco have had a lot of their own problems over the past couple of months. They were either blissfully in love and spending every possible moment together in secret, or hiding from one another, unable to accept their awful circumstances but now they had no choice.

Hermione looked up at Draco, lowering her arms from her chest, and grabbing his hands in hers, still ignoring the other five teachers and Tonks, all silently watching her response.

"You can't change the past Draco, but you can change where you go next." She said in a concerned tone. "If you are really in this, I'm going to need your word. Just say it and I'm yours."

He lowered his hands from her and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her in. "I promise love, the only side I'll fight for is the one you're on."

"I can't believe you're going to fall for this bull shit Hermione!" Harry scoffed, reminding the couple that he was nearby. "You know what he is going to do now, right? You're going to inform him of our plans and what we know, then he'll skip off to Voldemort and we'll all be dead soon after… you're endangering us all by saving him, and he isn't worth it."

"Harry, I trust him! I'm not asking you to do the same, but I am asking you to not question my judgment!" she retorted and turned towards the silent teachers in the room, "McGonagall, he isn't safe there. Please… help him." Hermione pleaded.

"I have faith in your decision Miss Granger, and I will try to find a way to help Mr. Malfoy and possibly make use of him, but I only ask one thing of you…"

"What is it? Anything, I'll do anything if you'll save him."

"You are not to tell him any details of the Order, our plans or whereabouts at any given time. Do you hear me?"

"Yes ma'am." Hermione curtly replied.

"Also, I am leaving Mr. Malfoy under your care until I am able to make other arrangements and discuss this with the Order."

"I take full responsibility for anything she that goes wrong concerning this. I can mind those conditions."

"Good. Now if the two of you wouldn't mind, I need to talk to the heads of houses, Miss Tonks and Mr. Potter."

Hermione managed a small smile in Draco's direction, grabbed his hand and they started to walk towards the door.

"Ahem, Mr. Malfoy," McGonagall called his attention and pointed under the desk. "You'll be needing your wand."

Draco nodded and briskly walked over and grabbed his wand, then took a few steps towards her. "Thank you Professor, I assure you that you won't regret this."

"You better not force me to, Draco." She replied, low enough that Hermione couldn't hear. Draco nodded again let Hermione hook his arm through his, shutting the door as they made their way out of the entry.

As soon as the door shut they could already hear Tonks' protests of Draco carrying a wand, Harry ranting that McGonagall's decision would end up killing them all and the teachers all discussing and questioning exactly how trustworthy the Malfoy heir really was. As they got farther down the staircase the objections turned in inaudible sounds, and then were completely quieted.

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><p><strong><em>(AN) I wasn't going to end it here, but the next part flowed better with the next chapter than it did this one so the ending is kind of at an awkward placement. Look for chapter 11 before Saturday! :) Review!_**


	11. Uncertainties

Okay loves, my first note would be to thank every who has reviewed, either in the comments or by PM. I know the story can move slow at times, but yet you all still read! I'm getting less and less hits with each chapter I write, but I really enjoy this and I'm going to keep at if for those of you who keep favoriting, alerting and commenting because it at least let's me know that you are reading it, although some days I can't figure out why.

My second note will be to inform you of the sad fact that I won't be able to keep with my old update schedule of every few days. I got my syllabi for all my classes this semester a couple days ago and needless to say, it isn't pretty. I will now be updating once a week, which I still consider good timing. Also, I'm sorry this is a bit of a short chapter. I had to cut if off because the next chapter blends together better and it's looking pretty long so far :) Please review if you read and let me know what you think. There is a very light theme to this chapter, if you pointed it out, comment! It's hardly noticeable though. I love you guys! - **Valerie Ann**

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><p><strong><strong>The cold wind blew through Hermione's hair as she leaned on the edge of the tower. The terror of the night showed through her appearance. The outfit she was wearing was from the day before; her hair was ratty and uncombed, still slightly caked in her own dry blood. She had managed to heal her busted lip, but the large gash on her right shoulder wouldn't heal, so she bandaged it instead, her blood already soaking the gauze. The sun was rising over the hillside now, making the damages to the castle more visible. The only remains of Hagrid's hut were a small rock foundation, and the front steps. There were burn marks in the grass on the grounds from misfired spells as the Carrow twins didn't want to leave the battle without causing as much trouble as possible the previous night. She followed the trail that the Death Eater's had used to escape over and over from her point on the tower with her eyes.

Sleep was an impossible feat the night before. Hermione had lead Draco to the tower, as she had many times prior. He allowed her to climb through the trap door first, with him following right behind. Wordlessly, she had walked straight over to the pile of blankets under the gazebo, and he laid right next to her. When she began to cry, he simply pulled her close to him and stroked her hair because although there were so many things left unsaid, last night, there was no room for words.

She continued to stare out into the grounds, he eyes still groggy from her lack of sleep. Footsteps came closer to the spot she was standing, then she peeked over to her side to see Draco was in the same stance as she was now, arms leaning on the edge of the tower and eyes glazing the grounds.

"I'm sorry, Hermione." Draco said in a flat tone. "You know what the worst part is though?"

Hermione looked at his eyes, which weren't meeting hers and raised an eyebrow.

"Things are only going to get worse from here. Last night was merely the beginning." His eyes met hers now, his expression emotionless as he continued. "He has a lot of plans, and those aren't going to be stopped overnight."

"Draco, you do realize that all this probably would have happened with or without you right?"

"But that isn't how it happened, is it?" he snapped. "I should have left last night when I had the chance."

Hermione's expression turned to one of rage, "Oh, so you could die a valiant death, with no one to clean up the mess?"

"He's going to come after me Hermione!" Draco shouted. "I know too much for him to let me off that easy. His plans were belated for Potter, but don't doubt that since I stayed he isn't going to expand his efforts to the highest possible degree."

"I saw Snape last night… I think he saw you." Hermione muttered, her features softening and her eyes dropping to the ground. "That is why I was late to the office. He put me in a body bind before he left and I-I think he saw you."

Draco let out low sarcastic chuckle. "Well if that doesn't ensure my immediate death, I don't know what does."

"Will you stop talking like that? For one godforsaken moment could you just be grateful you're alive and not lying in some lifeless pit?"

"It's hard to do that when I'm putting everyone here in danger."

"No, before you _were_ putting everyone in danger but now you have a chance to save them." She turned her head and went back to looking at the grounds. "McGonagall will find you a safe house. Just promise me you'll tell her everything you know about his plans and any quarters they may be hiding in." Hermione finished, not needing to explain who _he_ was, because Draco knew all too well.

Draco lightly nodded in reply. They both stared out into the distance for nearly a half hour before the silence was finally broken. "If they're sending me to a safe house, that you means you won't be there, doesn't it?" He asked timidly, which was unlike the typical Malfoy she knew.

"Yes. That is exactly what it means."

He sighed and moved behind her to wrap his arms around her waist. "So if I'm not going to be with you, how is any of this worth it?"

"Isn't survival worth it?"

It was a few more moments before Hermione softly pushed Draco's arms of her waist. "I'm starving. I'm guessing now would be about breakfast time in the hall, so I'm going to head down and grab some food."

She turned around and rose on her tippy toes to give him a chaste kiss. "I'll be back in an hour, please stay here. I will bring you food, okay?"

"Okay." He curtly replied, but she was already pulling up the trap door and lowering herself down the ladder.

Hermione's nerves were rising with each staircase she descended down to the first floor. Not a single student crossed paths with her as she walked, and she couldn't help but wonder how many crazed parents had come and picked up their children when word spread that Death Eaters had entered their school. The same school that was supposed to be impenetrable to dark magic. She finally came to the doors of the Great Hall when she realized that by now, word had probably spread that she had saved Draco Malfoy, just moments after he attempted to kill their headmaster. She braced herself for the world of hate she was about to enter, straightened her posture and opened the door.

The scene before her was not at all what she had expected. Only half of the students that normally stuffed themselves in the Great Hall were present. No one hurled and curses at her, nor did they glare at her. Hardly anyone even rose their heads from their plates to look at her, and the few who did only looked at her with pity. She looked over towards the Gryffindor table only to see Ron wave her over solemnly. She walked over and saw everyone had the same expression on their faces that Ron did; one of gloom and sadness.

She took the empty seat next to Ron, with Harry and Ginny sitting across from them. Ginny looked up and gave her a small, but empty welcoming smile.

"Classes are cancelled," Ron started, "but instead of evacuating the students, a lot of us refused to leave so we could stay for Dumbledore's funeral, which is in two days."

"Oh, okay I'll be there." Hermione quietly replied. 'They aren't yelling at me yet, why aren't they yelling at me?' She thought, her mind going a million miles per second.

Harry hadn't so much as glance her direction, that is unless she was looking away she would catch him glaring at her, in her peripheral vision, but if she turned her head back the anger would instantly drop from his eyes. Hermione was relieved at the thought that he must have not told anyone, but couldn't help but wonder why.

She looked over at him, trying to act as oblivious as possible as she did. She noticed by the awkward angle of both his left arm and Ginny's right, that they must be holding hands under the table.

By all means their relationship wasn't easy, but at least they had each other. They were able to be together without outside judgment because everyone had been able to see that they were perfect for one another. They didn't have to worry about any glares and mumbles behind their backs… well, except for Dean's maybe. Even though there is a war building up to a climax and they have their own problems, when Harry and Ginny are together, everything seems simpler.

There was nothing Hermione wanted more, as she looked at the young couple across from her, than to be able to have that with Draco. To be able to hold his hand down the halls of Hogwarts, take him home to meet her family and kiss him goodnight after he would walk her back to her dorm. At this point, it looked like they would never get to that point in their relationship.

Everyone continued eating in silence and slowly begin to file out one by one. A fifth year girl in Gryffindor began to cry at the table out of nowhere, and Ginny being herself, ran over there to comfort her. Harry's pose had stiffened without Ginny by his side, but he began to file out with the rest of them. Before the food disappeared Hermione quickly made a plate and covered it with a cloth napkin before catching up to Ron and Harry in the crowd.

"Harry!" she called after him repeatedly until he finally turned around.

"I have nothing to say to you, Hermione." He seethed out through clenched teeth. Ron kept walking, not even paying attention to the fact that Harry had stopped in his place.

"You didn't tell anyone so first I must thank you, but I have to ask; why didn't you?"

"Because unlike some people Hermione, I don't betray my friends. I'm sure it'll come out one way or another soon, but now isn't the time." He said in a low but angry voice before sauntering of towards the stairs.

Hermione wasn't sure whether to be hurt or relieved as ascended the stairs, taking her time so all the students would be out of the corridors before she made her way into the abandoned classroom. It wasn't easy climbing a ladder with a plate of food, but she somehow managed to. She pulled herself through the trap door to see Draco in the same exact place she had left him, leaning on the edge and staring out into the fields. She transfigured book into table, low enough to not need chairs, and set his food on it.

"Draco," She called to him since he had not yet acknowledged her presence. "I brought you food as promised. I'm going to go talk to the Order, just so I can catch up on some of the events I may have missed and plans for the funer- well just general plans."

He turned around to look at her with surprise as if he hadn't actually noticed she was back until she spoke. "Nobody said anything to you about us, did they?" he asked with concern in his voice.

"He didn't tell anyone… Harry didn't tell anyone you were still here."

"Well I have to say, I wouldn't expect as much from Potter."

"He really is a good guy Draco, and I know you two don't get along, but if you're staying you are going to have to trust him."

Draco sneered at the thought of trusting Potter, something that he had never considered in all his time at Hogwarts. He had already given him a chance during first year and it was rare for him to give second chances, but he was willing to at least act civilly for Hermione.

She looked up at him, but he still had a sneer on his face and looked lost in thought.

"I've got to go again, okay? Please promise me you'll stay here and not do anything stupid. We're going to figure this all out." Hermione said

Draco just stood as she rose on her tippy toes to kiss his cheek, then for the second time that day; she disappeared through the trap door. The more he thought about it, the less any of this seemed real. The smartest girl of their generation was in love with him. The dark side hated him and wanted him dead. The light side hated him and wanted him dead. He wondered what his parents would think of him. He was hoping they would think he just got captured or died in battle, but if Hermione was right and Snape saw him leave, there was no way they weren't being shamed by the other Death Eaters at this very moment.

For now, Lucius was safe from the ridicule in jail. His mother on the other hand, didn't have the benefit and stuck near her sister Bellatrix; a favorite of the Dark Lord.

Hermione was all he had now. He didn't have money to fall back on, he didn't have the favor of either side of the war, nor did he have friends anymore. She is all there is. She is home. She is real.

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><p>Hermione ran straight to the hospital wing, where the entire Weasley family was still gathered around a wounded Bill, just as they had the night before until she had left to go find Draco. Fleur was softly putting an ointment on the gashes on Bill's face, and everyone else was just looking at him somberly. This wasn't a time for the usual Weasley chatter and jokes. This wasn't a time for the warmth that usually surrounded the family or the random bickers that ended in smiles and hugs. This was war.<p>

This is reality. She wandered over to the empty seat between Charlie and Ron, and noticed Tonks, who was leaning against the wall near Arthur, looking at her with an unidentifiable expression, her eyes nearly squinting and her mouth tightened in a line. Hermione acted as though she hadn't noticed and looked away.

"Ron." She whispered in his direction, to no reply. "Ronald!" she whispered louder as she snapped her fingers near his ear.

"Oh, hey 'Mione." Hermione tried to hide the empathy in her face. He looked so out of it, but she guessed anyone would considering what had happened the previous night. Madame Pomfrey said that Bill would live, but there was no way to determine exactly how the wounds would affect him since Greyback wasn't in werewolf form when he had attacked Bill.

"I-I just wanted to know if you knew where McGonagall was."

"Erm, yeah, I think she is in Dumble- erm, the headmaster's office with some of the teachers to make burial arrangements."

"Thank you." She replied with a false smile. After quickly pulling him into an awkward side hug, she rose from her chair and ran out the door to head to the headmaster's tower office.

She wanted to know what was going to happen to Draco. There was nothing she wanted more than for him to be placed with her, but considering she may be on the frontlines of the war, it was understandable how that may not be a possible option. She muttered the password to the gargoyle outside the door, which then swung open to a curved stairwell. It was odd for her to think that just last night, she had been running up these exact steps to save Draco, and now she was doing the same thing.

Three loud knocks later, she heard a low "Come in." on the other side of the door. She entered the room to see McGonagall alone in the large office and sitting at the desk in the room, rummaging through paper work. Her always perfectly pulled back hair was slightly disheveled with a few pieces falling out of position and framing her face. Her spectacle were slightly crooked and she never even looked up from her work to see who had entered the room.

Hermione lightly cleared her throat, but the woman before her still didn't divert her gaze from her papers.

"I need to know what is going to happen to him Professor. Where is Draco going after this?"

"Miss Granger, I understand your predicament, but please consider that I have been very busy and I am very tired at the present moment. I will try-"

"But you promised!" Hermione cut off the temporary headmistress, using a tone she had never dared to use against a professor. "Professor, please… he has nowhere to go and everyone else will leave after the funeral in two days and he has to go somewhere. It isn't as if we can take him to the Burrow, or Grimmauld because the others don't understand him and they probably won't try to." She finished her plea with a low and shaky voice, hoping it would make up for her earlier outburst.

McGonagall took off her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose with closed eyes, which was a fitting pose considering the amount of stress she was dealing with at the moment.

"I assure you that I will do as I said I would and find a place for Mr. Malfoy to reside, but I am going to have to ask you to have patience."

"Okay, I can at least do that," Hermione murmured.

"Is Draco still willing to comply with my demands that I set earlier?"

"Yes, he said he would tell you everything he knows."

"Good then. I will owl you later concerning my discussion with Mr. Malfoy, all the details will be included."

The professor then put her classes back on, and went back to fumbling through the papers on the desk.

"One last question ma'am. Will I be able to go home after this?"

"I don't exactly commend that plan, but I think it would be best if you were able to see your parents, if only for a short time."

"Thank you professor… for everything," Hermione said before bursting out the door and down the stairs running in the direction of the tower, where he was waiting for her. Her Draco.


End file.
